Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao has

complimented the Budget presented byFinance Minister T Harish Rao for the

financial year 2020-2021 and said it is a balanced one. TheChief Minister went on to describe it as "a progressive Budget prepared for

the Welfare Telangana State." The Chief Minister said the Budget was realistic,striking a balance between the income, expenditure and needs of the people. The

Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over adequate allocations made in the Budgetfor the plans made for welfare of all sections and for all sectors. He said despite the

fact that the country was going through an economic slowdown, decrease in the staterevenues, reduction in the funds from the Centre, the Budget was made not to hamper any

development activity in the State. He, therefore, congratulated the FM's efforts. KCR said the Budget was madein accordance with the promises made during the elections, measures taken by the government for the village and

urban progress and development, the objective of including more poor in the welfare schemes.the Finance Ministry.

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

The State government onSunday presented a Rs 1.82lakh crore jumbo budget thatis free of any fresh taxes andlargely oriented towardsimproving the lot of farmers.

Finance Minister T. HarishRao presented the Budget for2020-21 for the first time in theTelangana State LegislativeAssembly.

The total outlay of the bud-get was pegged at Rs1,82,914.42 crore, which is sig-nificantly higher than the Rs1.46 lakh crore budget present-ed by the state government lastyear. Of this, the establishmentexpenditure is estimated at Rs78,301.80 crore and schemeexpenditure at Rs 1,04,612.62crore. The revenue surplus isestimated at Rs.4,482.12 crore,while the fiscal deficit stands atRs.33,191.25 crore.

KCR had slashed the Budgetby 20 per cent in September2019 when he presented a'full-fledged budget' of Rs 1.46lakh crore, in place of the Rs1.82 lakh crore 'Vote-on-Account' sought by the govern-ment in February 2019 citing'recession'.

As the impact of recession isstill being felt in the realizationof government revenues, therewere expectations that the pre-sent budget would be similar tothe one presented last year inmost respects. However,Harish sprang a surprise byincreasing the budgetary out-lay to Rs 1.82 lakh crore -- thesame that was presented byKCR in February 2019.

The highlight of the Budgetis the government's decision toimplement the pending farm

loan waiver scheme, beginningthis month. The governmenthas allocated Rs 6,225 crore forthis purpose in the first phase.This will benefit 5,83,916

farmers who have obtainedloans of less than Rs 25,000.

Interestingly, this time, thegovernment will hand overloan waiver cheques directly to

farmers, instead of payingthrough banks.

These cheques will be hand-ed over to the farmers by localMLAs. The move is likely toyield political mileage for TRS,as 103 out of 119 MLAs in theAssembly belong to TRS.

The government hasannounced waiver of croploans up to Rs 1 lakh in fourphases, for which Rs 24,738crore is required.

The Chief Minister's brain-child Rythu Bandhu has beenallotted Rs 14,000 crore, againstRs 12,000 crore last year. RythuBima got Rs 1,441 crore.

Another Rs.1,000 crore hasbeen allocated towards MarketIntervention Fund to ensureMinimum Support Price(MSP) for farmers for theirproduce.

To speed up the completionof pending irrigation projects,Rs 11,054 crore has been allo-cated to the irrigation sector.Micro irrigation has got Rs 600crore allocation. Rs.100 croreshas been proposed in thisBudget for extending incen-tives to the dairy farmers. Anamount of Rs 350 crore hasbeen sanctioned for construc-tion of Rythu Vidikas.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Top Indian shuttler P.V.Sindhu will not be shakinghands during next week's AllEngland Open BadmintonChampionships inBirmingham and use the tra-ditional 'Namaste' greetinginstead following the coron-avirus outbreak, the 24-year-old has said.

More than 106,000 peoplehave been infected by thecoronavirus across theworld and 3,600 have diedfrom it, according to aReuters tally of govern-ment announcements.

It has wreakedhavoc on thesporting land-scape as wellforcing ath-letes intom a k i n g

lifestyle changes in theOlympic year.

"Only Namaste," worldnumber six Sindhu toldSunday's Times of India news-paper when asked how sheplanned to greet players andofficials during the March 11-15 tournament inBirmingham.

"We need to avoid it (hand-shakes). It's always good to beon the safer side, to take extra

care of oneself," said the RioOlympics silver medal-list.

"Wear protectivemask, use handsanitisers allthe time, do notmove in groupsand avoidcrowded places.It's good to becareful all thetime."

@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:

MONEY 8SIX OF TOP-10 FIRMS LOSE

RS 95,432 CR IN M-CAP

ANALYSIS 7STEM THE

GENDER GAP

SPORTS 12SOUTHERN STARS SHINE SO BRIGHT

HYDERABAD, MONDAY MARCH 9, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

www.dailypioneer.com

RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 149*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Published From HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

TELANGANA BUDGETBEATS SLOWDOWN

Finance Minister T Harish Rao presenting the TS Budget 2020-21 for the first time in the State Legislative Assembly on Sunday

HARISH PRESENTSPRO-FARMER

BUDGET

14,000 CR

RYTHUBANDHU

1,141 CR

RYTHU BHIMA

6,225 CR

FARMERS’ DEBT WAIVER

10,000 CR

POWERSUBSIDY

Honour killing accusedMaruthi Rao ends lifePNS n HYDERABAD

In what gives a sensationaltwist to the Miriyalagudahonour killing case, MaruthiRao, one of the primeaccused, allegedly ended hislife on Saturday night by con-suming "an unknown poi-son". His body was foundlying on the bed by his driveron Sunday morning around8:45 am, following which theHyderabad Police confirmedhis death.

The 'suicide' theory, com-ing just two days ahead of thetrial scheduled for March 10,has added a new twist to thehonour killing case. A 'suicidenote' was reportedly found inthe room.

Later, police sources said TMaruthi Rao, father ofAmrita, committed suicide

by consuming an unknownpoison in a room in AryaVyshya Bhavan at

Chintalabasti, Khairatabadon Saturday night.

Body of the honour killing accused Maruthi Rao lies on a bed in a room of AryaVysya Bhavan at Kharaitabad in Hyderabad on Sunday. (inset) Maruthi Rao

Amid virus spread, hand sanitizersbecome 16 times costlierPNS n NEW DELH

Some sellers on etailers likeFlipkart are quoting 16 timesthe maximum retail price(MRP) for a 30 ml bottle ofhand sanitizer amid the spreadof the highly contagious NovelCoronavirus. Health expertshave advised people to keeptheir hands clean as it may helpreduce the risk of contractingthe virus.

The arrival of the coron-avirus in India has led to panicbuying, with neighbourhood

kirana stores reportedly run-ning out of sanitizers and otherliquids to disinfect the hands.

On Flipkart, a seller by thename SuperRetails has listed aHimalaya PureHands 30 mlbottle at Rs 999, several timesabove the MRP.Flipkart on itshelp centre says, "You could see

different prices for the sameproduct, as it could be listed bymany sellers."

People on Twitter havecomplained about the highprices of hand sanitizers at atime when they could be

needed the most."...Is this fair to sell 30 ml of

hand sanitizer at 999 at theneed of the hour for ppl?" aTwitter user Chaitra said.

"Companies are actuallyWorking hard to help peopleby selling a 30 ml HandSanitizer for only Rs 999 andmind that that's with a discountof Re 1. Please do somethingfor those who are selling prod-ucts over the MRP price,"tweeted Himanshu Kumar, tag-ging Flipkart.

People have been advised to keep their hands clean

No handshakes, only‘namastes’ for Sindhu

3 Infosys staffersheld for taking bribesfrom taxpayersPNS n BENGALURU

Three Infosys employees,attached to the Income Taxdepartment's CentralisedProcessing Centre here, werearrested for allegedly takingbribes from tax-payers forspeedy processing of theirrefund, police said on Sunday.

According to police, the keyaccused among the three wasattached to the CPC's datadivision and had demandedand collected money throughhis friends from some majortaxpayers with whom he hadcontact over phone for pro-cessing their I-T refund claimsat the earliest.

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmenthas allocated a whoppingamount of Rs 10,000 crore inthe Budget 2020-21 for theHyderabad UrbanAgglomeration area so as tometamorphose the 'City ofPearls' into an internationalcity.

Finance Minister T HarishRao said, "An amount of Rs10,000 crores is proposed inthis Budget to carry out theMusi River purification andMusi River Front Project andall other special projects andworks in Hyderabad Urban

Agglomeration area". The massive allocation is

evidence that the ruling partyis gearing up for the upcomingGHMC elections.

Later, at a presser, HarishRao termed this allocation forthe city as a "big decision". TheTelangana Government hasestimated that a sum of Rs

50,000 crore is required overthe next five years to take updevelopmental works in thecapital city, which is being"transformed into an interna-tional city".

Harish said, "The ChiefMinister had requested theCentral Government to grantspecial funds for develop-

ment of six Metro Cities inIndia. Central Governmenthas not granted special fundsto Hyderabad and othercities".

Pointing out that the alloca-tion under the budget wouldboost infrastructure works inand around Hyderabad,Municipal Minister K TarakaRama Rao said, "The city'sdevelopment will be accelerat-ed by the allocation of Rs10,000 crore in the currentbudget for infrastructure pro-jects and development projectscurrently underway inHyderabad and surroundingareas".

Hyderabad scores big in TS Budget

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Right or wrong, a high point ofthe Rs 1.84 lakh-crore budgetpresented by Finance MinisterT Harish Rao on Sunday is thestate's unabashed reliance onvastly increased revenues fromthe Excise Department as away to tone up the fiscal healthof Telangana.

While being confident of thestate meeting all its revenuetargets from various depart-ments, the Finance Ministermentioned that for the pastthree months the State hadbeen getting every month Rs300 cr revenues additionally

from liquor sales, taking themonthly total to nearly Rs1,400 crore.

Harish Rao said that thegovernment was expecting"good revenue" from the ExciseDepartment in the coming 12months. Although the govern-ment had estimated Rs 16,000crore revenue from liquor salesfor the financial year 2020-21,the government might get farmore than the estimated rev-enues.

In the Budget of 2019-20,the government had estimatedrevenue from liquor atRs.10,901 crore. However, asper the revised estimate for theyear 2019-20, the revenue was

Rs.12,600 crore. In a similarmanner, the governmentexpects the revenues fromliquor sales to cross Rs.20,000crore, significantly more thanestimated in the budget.

In his interaction withmedia persons post presenta-tion of the Budget, the FinanceMinister estimated that rev-enue this year from liquorsales showed almost 27 percentgrowth. During 2019-20, thegovernment had estimatedRs.10,901 crore revenue fromliquor sales; however, accord-ing to revised estimates, therevenues for the year 2019-20increased to Rs 12,600 crore.

TS fiscal health hinges on tipplers FM expects more revenue from Excise Dept

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana's Gross StateDomestic Product (GSDP) in2019-20 witnessed a growth of12.6%, which is a slight dropfrom 14.3% recorded last year(2018-19).

In his budget speech,Finance Minister T HarishRao stated, "As per theAdvanced Estimates, Gross

State Domestic Product(GSDP) in 2019-20 is estimat-ed at Rs.9,69,604 crores, at cur-rent prices, indicating agrowth of 12.6% over the pre-vious year. Because of theeconomic slowdown, therehas been a slight decline in thegrowth of GSDP, in currentprices, from 14.3 % in 2018-19to 12.6% in 2019-20.

TS GSDP drops, but isabove national averageTS per capita income at Rs.2,28,216,higher over India's Rs1,35,050

KCR praisesHarish for‘balanced

budget’

BONANZA FOR FARMERSn Loan waiver chequesto be handed over tofarmers directly by theMLAs

n Rythu Bandhu,Rythu Bima gets

more funds

n Harishsays TS couldovercomerecessionwith state'sownresources]

RevenueReceiptsRs 1,43,151cr

Revenue

Expenditure

Rs 1,38,669 cr

Public DeptRs 35,000 cr

Public DeptRepaymentRs 6,521 cr

Loan andAdvancesRs 15,662 crNet-Deficit (Rs 212 cr)

LoanRecoveriesRs 50 cr

Public Accoun (Net) RS 4,000 cr

Capital ExpenditureRs 22,061 cr

n TRS in a run-up for GHMC elections,allocates Rs 10,000 crore to city, the highest ever

n KTR hails, says this willhelp Hyderabad developas global city

2

2

2

3

Harish presents ‘jumbo budget' of Rs 1.82 lakh crore, up from Rs 1.46 lakh crore last year Comes up with tax-free budget

Due to panic buying,neighbourhoodkirana stores arereportedly runningout of sanitizers andother liquids

3

2

n Farm loan waiver tobegin this month, to becompleted in fourphases

n Crop loans up to Rs25,000 of5.84 lakhfarmers tobe waived offin the first phase

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated March 08, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC TODAY

Month & Paksham:Phalguna & Shukla PakshaPanchangam:Tithi: Purnima: 11:16 pmNakshatram: Purva Phalguni: 01:08 am

(Next Day)Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 08:00 am – 09:29 amYamagandam: 10:57 am – 12:26 pmVarjyam: 11:09 am – 12:33 pmGulika: 01:55 pm - 03:23 pmGood Time: (to start any important

work)Amritakalam: 07:32 pm – 08:56 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 12:02 pm – 12:50 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly CloudyTemp: 32/22Humidity: 61%Sunrise: 06.28Sunset: 06.24

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020 hyderabad 02

HC UPADHYAY n HYDERABAD

Let this caption frighten JihadiMuslims and pseudo-secularpeople from all religions, creedsand language groups. Let thiscaption send tremors inPakistan and Turkey. Let thiscaption induce chest-beatingamong Communist comrades.In short, let the heavens fall, buttoday, this is the battle-cry of themammoth majority of Hindusin this country, called Bharatthat is, India.

As discussed in thesecolumns, if people want a par-ticular thing to materialise, theywill have it. What the framers ofthe Constitution could notdeliver in 1950, either knowing-ly or unknowingly, now the timehas come to get it notwithstand-ing the minorities' apprehen-sions.

True, this is the true spirit ofour Constitution. The majorityvoice has to prevail over theminority, be it even 50% to 49%.This is called democracy. Just asunder the garb of theConstitution, the Tukde-Tukdegang supported by jihadi ele-ments has been demanding

'Azadi', truly meaning secessionfrom the country, likewise butnot with similar intent, it is hightime that the juggernaut rolledon the strife-ridden country andset right the unruly, anti-nation-al and blood-thirsty fanatics.

In fact, declaring India aDharmashala for all and sundry,after giving away 1/3rd of its ter-ritory to Muslim fanatics in1947, the erstwhile leadershipcommitted a Himalayan blun-der and give a long rope to anti-national elements thereafter.What was logically indeed need-ed after the Partition was todeclare the Hindu- dominatedIndia as a 'Hindu Rashtra'.Instead, dancing to the tunes ofvested interests, in 1976, thethen Prime Minister Mrs. IndiraGandhi inflicted yet anotherinjury to the wounded Hindusby hurriedly incorporating thewords, 'Secular and Socialist' inthe Preamble to theConstitution.

The Pan-Islamic dream ofruling the world is taking aheavy toll on humanity.Therefore, not only in India butall over the world, a new radi-cal line of thought is gainingcurrency. According to this

new dispensation, fanaticMuslims would be paid back inthe same coin. Hence, nothingcan prevent India to officiallydeclare our country as the'Hindu Rashtra'. It is as simpleas it was declared a secular andsocialist country through 42ndConstitutional Amendment,whereby these two words werehurriedly inserted when theentire opposition clan was inprisons during the draconianEmergency period.

Now what needs to be doneis to just introduce aConstitutional Amendment Billwhereby the word 'secular'inserted in the Preamble to theConstitution of India during theEmergency should be droppedand in its place, a loud and cleardeclaration that India is a HinduRashtra and that it shall be ruled

by the principles and traditionsof the Hindu religion should beincorporated. Thus, instead ofhaving a piecemeal approach tothe problem, a bold andsolid action like this ispreferable.

Instead of dying everyday by the threats of vio-lence and arsonfrom traitors andfanatics, it isalways desirable toface such threatsand have a show-down to put a fullstop to the nuisance.This is the need ofthe hour. If we fail tostand up to the situation now,our future generations will notpardon us. Happily Dr. SambitPatra, the BJP nationalspokesman and a Member of

Parliament, seems to have giventhe mind of the ruling partywhen he said, while addressingthe Legal and LegislativeCommittee of the BJP atHyderabad on March 5: "Thetime has come to call a spade aspade". This curt expression ofa ruling party big-wig conveysa lot if one tries to read betweenthe lines. Statutory provisionsmust be followed whileacquiring land: SC

A division bench of the apexcourt, comprising J. SanjayKishan Goud and J. K.M.Joseph, observed that though

the State has the right toacquire land under

the LandAcquisition Act,

it is obliged to follow theprovisions of the relevant

law for such acquisition."....even though rights inland are no more aFundamental Right, still itremains a Constitutional

right under Article 300A of TheConstitution of India... it isalso settled law that, followingthe procedure of section 4(1) ofthe Land Acquisition Act, 1894

is mandatory, and unless thatnotice is given in accordancewith the provisions containedtherein, the entire acquisitionproceedings would be vitiated.An entry into the premisesbased on such non-compliancewould result in the entry beingunlawful. The law being ex-pro-prietary in character, the sameis required to be strictly fol-lowed." The court's observationcame in D.B Basnet(D) v/s TheCollector in Civil Appeal no.196/2011.For anticipatory bail,approaching sessionscourt not mandatory

In an important judgmentdelivered by a five-Judge bench,the Allahabad High Court hasheld that under special circu-mstances, a person apprehend-ing arrest may approach the HCdirectly seeking anticipatorybail, without approaching theSessions Court first.

This decision has been ren-dered unanimously by the five-judges bench comprising C.J.Govind Mathur, J. RameshSinha, J. Sunita Agarwal, J.Yashwanth Verma and J. RahulChaturvedi, while answering a

reference made by a single-judge of the High Court inVinod Kumar v/s State of U.Pand another, 2019 (12) ADJ 495.

However the bench observedthat strong, cogent, compellingand special circumstances mustnecessarily be found toapproach the High Court firstwithout adjusting the remedyavailable before the court of ses-sions.

TS-HC first HC to caution about Covid-19

The Telangana High Courtprobably is the first High Courtin the country to have issued acircular, giving guidelines to itssubordinate courts on how todeal with Covid-19 epidemic. Inits circular ROC No.394/50/2020 dated 4-3-2020,the Registrar General A.Venkateswara Reddy has askedall the unit heads in the State "totake all necessary steps requiredfor sanitation on the Courtpremises, provide sanitizers,soaps in the toilets on thepremises, also take necessarysteps to keep hygiene and forproviding masks to all the offi-cers, staff, litigants etc; visitingthe courts."

LEGAL ROUNDUP

The Pan-Islamic dream of ruling theworld is taking a heavy toll on humanity.Therefore, not only in India but all overthe world, a new radical line of thoughtis gaining currency. According to thisnew dispensation, fanatic Muslimswould be paid back in the same coin

Time up for declaring India as ‘Hindu rashtra'!

Gold buoyant; platinum andpalladium march forwardPNS n HYDERABAD

This week too, two factorsimpacted the global marketsheavily. They are: furtherspreading of coronavirus likewildfire in 80 countries send-ing alarm signals to the wholeworld and breach of the pactfor withdrawal of Americantroops from Afghanistan bythe Talibans, following whichair strikes on Afghanistan werecarried out by the US.

Gold remained buoyant andclosed at US $ 1,673. 85 (perounce), while silver followedsuit and closed at $ 17.32 (perounce). Platinum and palladi-um also marched forwardand closed at $.903 (per 10gms) and $. 2,451 (per 10gms) respectively.

Other economicparameters movedsouthward. Brentclosed at US $ 45.50(per barrel), whileCrude MCX oilwas quoted atRs.3,159 (perbarrel). While Gold MCXincreased and stood atRs.44,158 (per 10 gms) evenMCX Silver has seen anincrease and closed atRs.46,969 (per kg). Sensex andNifty 50 closed at 37,576.62and 19,989.50 points respec-tively. Leading foreign cur-rencies' exchange rates were:

US $: Rs.74.00, British Pound:Rs. 96.56, Euro: Rs. 83.51,Singapore $: Rs.53.68, SwissFranc: Rs.79.00, Australian $:Rs.49.21, Saudi Rial: Rs. 19.72,New Zealand Dollar: 47.04,Kuwaiti Dinar: Rs.242.28,

Omani Rial: Rs. 192.27and UAE Dirham:Rs.20.15.

At home, trad-ing continued to

be dull. Howe-ver, followingthe global tre-

nd, both thep r e c i o u s

metals su-rged ahe-ad. Stand-

ard gold appreciated by awhopping Rs.1,650 and closedat Rs.44, 470 (per 10 gms) .Ornamental gold too, movedin tandem and was quoted inthe range of Rs.42,270 - 42,370on the closing day. Similarly,silver (0.999) also appreciatedsignificantly by Rs. 3,400 andclosed at Rs.46,900 (per kg).

COMMODITIESThe sentiment in principal

wholesale commodity mar-kets in the twin cities remainedmoderate. Rythu Bazars andthe various commodity mar-kets located in Begum Bazar,Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj,Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar, Kukat-pally, Bowenpally, GeneralBazar was from moderate tostrong.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal, masoordal, moong dal and urad dal,and commodities like chillies,turmeric and garlic recorded amarginal appreciation, whilestaple food grains and com-mon edible oils remainedsteady at the previous week'sclosing levels. Coriander, gin-ger and tamarind remaineddivergent within narrow mar-gins. Following scare of coro-navirus, the prices of commonvegetables declined consider-ably during the week.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Gold remained buoyant and closed at US $1,673. 85 (per ounce), while silver followedsuit and closed at $ 17.32 (per ounce).Platinum and palladium also marchedforward and closed at $.903 (per 10 gms)and $. 2,451 (per 10 gms) respectively.

‘IT IS A WOMAN'S WORLD’PNS n HYDERABAD

The Vice-President of India, MVenkaiah Naidu emphasisedthat educational and econom-ic empowerment is importantfor women empowerment.

Speaking at the inaugural ofiWIN (International WomenNetwork) on the occasion ofWomen's Day in Hyderabad onSunday, the Vice-President saidthat that no country couldmake progress if women weredenied equal opportunities andwere made to lag behind.

Describing education as thekey to economic, political orsocial empowerment ofwomen, Naidu said that it wasthe duty of each one of us to seethat no girl was left out ofschool. He opined that an edu-cated woman would possessskills, self-confidence andcould become a better parent."She would also provide betternutrition and hence ensurethat her children are healthy,"he added. In this aspect, he ex-pressed happiness over tremen-dous impact made by 'BetiBachao, Beti Padao' in increas-ing the Gross Enrolment Ratioof girls across all levels.

Calling for a change inmindset, the Vice-Presidentsaid that there was an urgentneed to make boys respectgirls from a young age. He said

that women were always givena respectable place in Indianculture and traditions and weneed to go back to our roots.

Stating that life always needswomen, Naidu in his trade-mark style, said "First it is edu-cation, then wealth and final-ly it is peace"

He further opined that thegentle most and life givingelements in nature are identi-fied as women. "Rivers in ourcountry are named afterwomen. From dawn to dusk weare at work seeking Annapurna(food)", he added.

Describing spiritual sym-bols, the Vice President stated,whether we chant the Gayatri(mantra) or read the Gita

(epic), or we do Vandana , Pujaor Aarti with Shraddhatowards God to pray, we arestill with women.

Maintaining that the great-est human values are feminine,Shri Naidu said, "when wegrow older we want Karuna(compassion) or Mamta (love).From those who are angrywith us we want Kshama (for-giveness)."

"It is a woman's world", hesaid. Observing that even afterseven decades of Indepen-dence, there were still reportsof gender discrimination,atrocities and violence againstwomen, the V-P stressed thatthere should be zero tolerancetowards such social evils.

n VICE-PRESIDENT VENKAIAH NAIDU INAUGURATES INTERNATIONAL WOMEN NETWORK

Guv: Women don'tneed a crown, theirhead is their crown PNS n HYDERABAD

Participating in Women'sday celebrations at NilouferHospital, Governor ofTelangana Dr TamilisaiSoundarajan said womendon't need a crown, theirhead is their crown.

If a mother has two bab-ies and doesn't get breastsufficient to feed both chil-dren, she gives more prefer-ence to a male than femalechild. Unfortunately that

disparity still exists in oursociety. In my early practiceas a house surgeon I felt thedire need of Women BreastMilk. It was just a sheercoincidence that I askedmy Secretary couple of daysback to enquire if there wasany Breast Milk Bank in thecity. That is when I decidedto visit this. In fact I volun-teered to come here and itso happened that it is worldwomen's day informed DrTamilisai Soundarajan.

Notwithstanding the tall talkfrom lofty pulpits aboutwomen empowerment,

female political leadership at high-er echelons is still a far cry. Goingby the permutations and combina-tions of political parties, femaleleaders are unlikely to increase innumbers among the major politicalparties in the coming years.

Of course, there is no dearth offemale leaders at the level of localbodies. Still, the same equation maynot be seen in the next GeneralElection when it comes to ruralTelangana districts.

Sample these: the ruling TRS hasa Minister in Satyavathi Rathod,whip in Sunitha Mahender Reddy,Padma Devender Reddy in Medakdistrict , another minister in SabithaIndra Reddy; the oppositionCongress has Dhanasiri Anasuyain Warangal district, and the BJPformer minister DK Aruna in thewomen leaders list. These names are

along with those of former RajyaSabha member Gundu Sudharaniof TRS and another former minis-ter Konda Surekha of Congressfrom Warangal district.

There are a few more leaders inPadmavathi Uttam Kumar Reddy,Seetha Dayakar Reddy of the pre-sent generation on the politicalarena, along with the likes ofKalvakuntla Kavita who enjoy polit-ical clout. Among freshers, there areonly a few names that are going toemerge in the coming years, con-sidering that the interest towardstaking a plunge into politics amongfemale leaders has been waning inrural Telangana districts. KeerthiReddy of BJP from Bhupalplalli isone such leader who is aspiring tobe somebody in the coming years.The International Women's Day fete

in many districts reflected theseaspects. The upshot is that thoughthe demand for women reservationhas been vociferous at the nation-al level, fewer women seem to beinterested in politics these days.In quest of a woman scribe

Following Budget presentation,Harish Rao was in a quest of awoman reporter. Since the Budgetwas presented on the InternationalWomen's Day, Harish wanted tostart his talk by wishing a reporter.He looked around the room for abrief moment and said that he wasnot able to see even one womanjournalist in the room. Fortunatelyfor the minister, there was onewoman reporter. Upon being alert-ed, the minister greeted the lonemember of the tribe and wished her

on the special day. In fact, this hasbeen the scene at Assembly thesedays, with the number of womenjournalists dwindling.

Prayers before unveiling Finance Ministers normally

invite their family members when-ever they introduce the Budget inlegislatures. On Sunday, theTelangana State government intro-duced Budget-2020 in both theHouses. Finance Minister T HarishRao introduced the Budget in the

Legislative Assembly andLegislative Affairs Minister VemulaPrashanth Reddy introduced theBudget in Legislative Council.Harish Rao did not invite his fam-ily members. However, VemulaPrashanth Reddy invited his fam-ily members-wife Niraja Reddy, sonPujith Reddy and daughter Manavi.Prashanth Reddy also invited RajyaSabha member J Santhosh Kumaras a special invitee for his Budgetpresentation.

Harish Rao, however, visitedSeetharama Chandra Swamy tem-ple near his residence at Kondapur,before coming to the Assembly forunveiling the budget. Incidentally,Harish Rao did not invite his fam-ily members even during his firstbudget presentation in theLegislative Council last year.

Provide masks, unmaskunscrupulous tradersRegardless of the efforts to containthe spread of coronavirus in theState, the solitary weapon thatmay help prevent one from con-tracting the virus, the mask isscarce in the market. One is greet-ed by 'no stock' reply at medicalstores across the city. The State gov-ernment has been gloating over thesetting up of isolation wards with15 beds at every district-level andteaching hospitals. The man in thestreet, however, is worried aboutthe prevention of the disease. Theonly way to ward off the spread ofthe virus is to wash hands frequent-ly and wear masks. Instead ofmaking sanitizers and masks avail-able freely, the government is pub-licising allocation of funds and

steps to contain the virus. While themasks were sold at Rs 5 per piecebefore the outbreak of the disease,now the going rate is Rs 50 in theblack market. The most disgustingfact is that even the most popularpharma outlets claim that masksare in short supply.

Parents are under pressure asschools and colleges in the city areinsisting that their wards wearmouth masks. It's time the govern-ment acted quickly and distributedmasks freely or at highly sub-sidised prices. It should also keepa tight vigil on unscrupuloustraders who want to mint moneyby taking advantage of the helpless-ness of the people in these tryingtimes.

(Contributed by P V Kondal Rao,

Naveena Ghanate,Kolishetty Venkateshwarlu

and Ch Pradeep)

REPORTERS’

D ARY

Female political leadership still a far cry

Telangana budget beats slowdown Continued from Page 1

The government has taken adecision to construct one RythuVedika for every 5,000-acrecluster so as to enable interac-tions among farmers. EachRythu Vedika is estimated tocost Rs.12 lakh.

"This Budget has been pre-pared against the backdrop ofoverall economic slowdowngripping the Indian economy.The economy has been facingslowdown for the past one and

a half years. As a result, there isreduction in tax devolutionand other transfers to the Stateby the Centre, and decline in thegrowth of State revenues. Thereis an immediate need to keep upthe growth momentum in theState. The tax devolution fromCentre to the State is expectedto be lower in 2019-20 byRs.3,731 crore, as comparedwith the budget estimates.There are delays and shortfallsin the release of State's share inIntegrated Goods and Services

Tax and GST compensation.Following the economic slow-down, the growth of the State'sown revenues in 2019-20 (tillthe end of February) is estimat-ed to be at 6.3%, much belowthe growth of 16.1% achieved in2018-19," Harish said in hisBudget speech.

Explaining the reasons forincreasing budget size, Harishsaid, "The antidote to economi-c recession is to enhance peo-ple's purchasing power. Gover-nment is achieving economic

development through dualstrategy of enhancing people'spurchasing power step by stepand by spending resources oncapital expenditure."

Harish concluded by sayingthat, "There is no reduction inthe funds pertaining to welfareprogrammes, but decisionstaken are reflected in thisBudget to increase the benefi-ciaries under welfare schemes.This Budget depicts the statecommitment towards advance-ment of poor people.”

TS GSDPdrops, but ...

Hyd scoresbig in TS...Continued from Page 1

Minister KTR expressedconfidence that Hyderabadwould be transformed into aninternational city in the nextfour years as the govern-ment would spend over Rs50,000 crore over the nextfour years for the city, with Rs10000 crore being allocatedevery year. He stated that alarge amount of funds hadbeen allocated to the SRDPprojects to strengthen theroad network in the city.

Continued from Page 1

However, the decline ismuch lower than that of thedecline in national GDPgrowth from 11.2% to 7.5 %in the corresponding period.Thus, to a great extent, theState economy has withstoodthe shocks of the economicslowdown across the countryand maintained a doubledigit growth rate. Thisresilience has been madepossible because of the fore-sight of our CM in taking upnumerous and first of itskind developmental and wel-fare schemes in the State andputting the State economy ona higher growth trajectory."

Harish said that agricultureand allied sectors have reco-rded an impressive growth in2019-20. While the crop sec-tor is estimated to grow at23.7 per cent, the livestockand fishing sectors are esti-mated to grow at 17.3 percent and 8.1 per cent respec-tively. The per capita incomeof the State of Telangana isgreater than the per capitaincome of our country.

TS fiscal health hinges on tipplers Continued from Page 1

Harish Rao exuded confi-dence that the governmentwould realize targeted rev-enues from various sources.Growth of revenue wouldhenceforth be one of thefocus areas, considering allelections have been complet-ed in the state, he said.

The Finance Ministerpointed out that the govern-ment had not reduced budgetfor any of the welfare

schemes, though the Centrehad not been supportive ofthe state with regard tofinance matters.

Still, the governmentwould target more revenuesfrom the Excise Department,real estate, sale of non-per-forming assets, and othersources.

The revenues from taxeson sales, trade and extratouched Rs.26,400 crore, asagainst the revised estimatefor the year 2019-20 at

Rs.21,972 crore. The govern-ment was expecting 20 per-cent additional revenue fromthe taxes on sales and tradeextra. The government wasexpecting additional revenuealso from the stamps and reg-istration fees.

That is, the government isexpecting Rs.10,000 crorerevenue from the depart-ment of stamps and registra-tion fees this year or Rs.4000crore more than what it real-ized last year.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIME ORNERC

CRPF constable shoots self with service weapon

ACRPF constable, hailing fromNagpur in Maharashtra, on

sentry duty allegedly committedsuicide by shooting himself withhis service weapon in the earlyhours of Sunday. According topolice, the victim was identifiedas Baban Vithal Rao Manwar, 40.He was stationed on sentry dutyat the CRPF public school herewhen he took the extreme step."The man allegedly shot himselfto death under the chin with hisservice weapon, an SLR (self-loading rifle) at about 2:10 am"said the Police Inspector ofJawahar Nagar, P BikshapathiRao. Following a complaint fromDeputy Commandant, BRathnamma, an official from thegroup centre of CRPF, a case hasbeen registered, police said,adding that the reason behindManwar's extreme step is beingascertained.

23-year-old driveraccused of raping woman in car

A23-year-old married womanwas allegedly raped by a man

in his car near here after givingher a lift, police said on Sunday.The 33-year-old accused offeredthe woman a lift in his car on lateFriday while she was waiting onthe roadside to go toChandanvelly village, they said.Instead of taking her to thedestination, he drove to anisolated place and allegedlyraped her, the police said. Theaccused also hails from thesame village, hence the womanafter being offered a lift boardedhis car, they said. The womanlodged a complaint on Saturday,based on which a case has beenregistered and the accused takeninto custody, they added.

Mentally ill mangoes on attackingspree, detained

Several commuters Secundera-bad were attacked by a ment-

ally ill man who went on a spreeon Sunday. The attacks were sosevere that one of the victims su-ccumbed later at Gandhi hospi-tal. The Gopalapuram Police thendetained the attacker, identifiedas R Rajender. The incident hap-pened in Secunderabad. Thedetained hails from Namakkaldistrict of Tamil Nadu. He wasmoving suspiciously carryingsticks on Sunday and after sometime, he started attacking passer-sby. While many managed toescape, some of them receivedinjuries. A native of Visakhap-atnam, M Ravinder Reddy wasone of the victims who had cometo the city for some personalwork. "While he was walkingtowards Secunderabad station,Rajender targeted him. Evenbefore Ravinder could realiseand escape, Rajender rainedblows with sticks. Ravinder wasinjured and collapsed. Passersbynoticed this and alerted policeand ambulance. Police rushed tothe spot and detained Rajender,while Ravinder was shifted toGandhi hospital," said the police.Gopalapuram Police registered amurder case against Rajenderand started investigation.

Bhang keeps Holi spirits high NAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

With the festival of colours,which marks the consumptionof bhang as a part of commoncelebration in many Indianhomes, right around the corner,officials from the ExciseDepartment are gearing up tocurb the sales this year.

The contraband drugtakes many forms,ranging from simplepills or golis createdby mixing thecannabis with water,to sweet bhang las-sis, where the leavesare ground and addedto heavy milk withalmonds, sugar, and otherflavorings. The drug can also bepacked into Indian 'mithai' orsweets made with nuts andcondensed milk and decoratedwith silver and gold edible foil.In its diluted form, bhang offersa mild buzz or high. Consumingit in larger quantities is akin tosmoking weed.

In view of the festival, to curbganja and bhang sales, in accor-dance with instructions given byDeputy Commissioner of theExcise Department CVivekananda Reddy, theEnforcement teams kept specialvigilance on the sales of delica-cies mixed with bhang andganja at the Dhoolpet, Begum

Bazaar andMahabubganjareas.

N AnjiReddy, Assistant

E x c i s eSuperintendent of

Enforcement in Hyderabad saidsuch hotspot areas are keptunder strict surveillance byteams deputed to nab the sell-ers. "Apart from keeping thearea under our watch, we arealso keeping an eye on thehabitual offenders and suspect-ed persons to ensure that thereare no drugs given out to thepublic," he said.

"Several men approachDhoolpet area during the festi-val to find bhang, which is soldin the form of small, cake-likesweets for Rs 50 each. Theinstruction is given to cus-tomers to share each piece

among five to six people for amild high" said a person whohas purchased bhang last year.Not so far away, at Dhoolpet,now being touted as gudumba(illicitly distilled liquor) andganja free, hundreds of familiessurvive making kulfi (a popularfrozen dairy dessert).

While some of them sell kulfiacross the state, they invariablyturn towards making bhangkulfi on Holi. Mukesh, whoclaims to have been in the busi-ness since decades, prepareskulfi from at least one quintalmilk on an average day. A papercup helping costs Rs 30.However, on Holi, the samecomes at Rs 60. And that'sbhang.

"It's bhang ka patta (leaves).They are green leaves, ayurvedicin nature. These are not ganjaleaves," he insists. A quarter kg

of bhang leaves is enough formaking 10 litres of kulfi andkulfi made out of 1 litre wouldbe enough for 15 persons, hesays.

As per definition of ganja asa narcotic in NDPS Act, officialssay, the reference is only to dryleaves, seeds and buds of theplant. "Bhang is generally madefrom green ganja leaves, whichdo not come under the defini-tion of a narcotic. Anotheralternative raw material could bepoppy seeds. Cultivation ofpoppy seeds is regulatory but itsstraw is used in deriving opium,which when processed, givesheroin," said an official, addingthat even chemical analysis ofbhang samples would not easi-ly establish the raw material used.

As per definition ofganja as a narcoticin NDPS Act, officialssay, the reference isonly to dry leaves,seeds and buds ofthe plant. Bhang isgenerally made fromgreen ganja leaves,which do not comeunder the definitionof a narcotic

Establish isolation wards in towns and cities: Etela PNS n HYDERABAD

Health Minister Etela Rajenderhas visited the GovernmentChest Hospital at Erragaddaand asked the hospital author-ities to keep ready an isolatedbuilding on the hospitalpremises for patients visitingthe hospital with symptoms ofcoronavirus.

The Minister went aroundvarious wards created for coro-navirus suspects.

Paying a visit to the chesthospital on Sunday, theMinister passed severalinstructions to hospital author-ities. In the two-storeyedbuilding, four isolation wardshave been readied for thecoronavirus suspects. Of them,eight beds have ventilator facil-

ities. The Minister asked themedical and health authoritiesto increase the number ofbeds meant for coronaviruspatients. He suggested estab-lishing isolation wards in dis-trict headquarters towns andcities. It may be recalled that

the health minister recentlyvisited the wards treatingpatients with symptoms ofcoronavirus at GandhiHospital. He spoke to thepatients who tested positive forthe virus and wished himspeedy recovery. During thevisit, he asked the authoritiesto close down access to theward from other wards.

In the same fashion, theminister visited chest hospitalon Sunday.

Medical education directorDr Ramesh Reddy, Telanganamedical infrastructural ameni-ties corporation managingdirector Dr ChandrasekharReddy, chief engineeringLakshma Reddy and chesthospital superintendentaccompanied the minister.

24-year-old youth hangshimself at his residencePNS n HYDERABAD

A 24-year-old student commit-ted suicide by hanging himselfat his residence inVanasthalipuram on Sundaymorning. The victim,Rachamalla Sai Tharun, whowas pursuing his masters inAustralia, was the son of aRachakonda sub inspector.

According to police, Tharuncompleted his engineering inHyderabad and went toAustralia for his Masters. "Hecame home for vacation amonth ago and was planningto leave this week. His flighttickets were booked as well,"said the police.

On Saturdaynight, he com-plained of ill-health andwent to anearby hos-pital forcheck-up. Her e t u r n e dhome, had din-ner and went tosleep. On Sunday, he woke up,spoke to his parents and elderbrother. Later, as his parentswere in the bedroom and the

brother was in the otherroom leaving Tharun inthe hall.

"After sometime,when his parents cameout, they found him

hanging to the ceilingfan in the hall. He was

brought down and rushedto a nearby private hospital,where he was declared broughtdead. While parents are clue-less as to what drove him tosuicide, we are probing from

different angles. It is suspect-ed that he took the extremestep, not willing to leave hisparents. No suicide note wasfound at the spot," added thepolice.

Police are enquiring his par-ents and brother to know if hehad shown any symptoms orany abnormal behaviour onSaturday night or Sundaymorning. A case has been reg-istered at Vanasthalipurampolice station.

Hyderabadi hangs self in Bengaluru An employee from Hyderabad working with a Visa company in

Bengaluru allegedly committed suicide by hanging at his rentedflat on Saturday night. The victim was identified as G Ranjith KumarReddy, sources said. According to sources, Ranjith is the only son ofG Srinivas Reddy, residents of Ganesh nagar of Uppal in Hyderabad.After completing education in the city, Ranjith was posted atBengaluru, a year back.Ranjith was found hanging at his rented flaton Saturday night. His friends noticed him hanging to the ceiling andshifted him to hospital, but he was declared brought dead, followingwhich police registered a case and started investigation. Police are enquiring from his friends and colleagues to know thepossible reasons behind the suicide. They checked his flat but didnot find any suicide note or any suspicious activity. It is suspectedthat he could have taken the extreme step due to personal issues. Hisfamily members have travelled to Bengaluru to complete theformalities and bring his mortal remains for performing the last rites.

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM

TSRTC MD asks peopleto patronise RTC buses PNS n HYDERABAD

Managing director ofTelangana State RoadTraffic Corporation(TSRTC) SunilSarma onSunday tookpeople by sur-prise byan n ou n c i ngabout publicaddress systemto board city BusRoute No. 229 atthe RTC point nearGurudwara at Secunderabadrailway station.

He said that the people'sblessings are a great source ofstrength to the RTC. Thetransport undertaking would

prosper if they patronise it. Sunil Sarma encouraged

people to board the RouteNo.229 as the RTC dri-

vers will help themreach their desti-

nation safelysince they arevery experi-enced.

The RTCc ont ro l l e r s

and other per-sonnel feel moti-

vated with the ges-ture of their MD.

Greater Hyderabad Zoneexecutive director KVenkateswarlu, Secunderabadregional manager GYugandhar and other officialswere present on the occasion.

State-of-the-art medical facilitiesat NIMS comes in handy for poorPNS n HYDERABAD

The Nizam's Institute ofMedial Sciences (NIMS) haveset up eight transplantationsuits in its Millennium Block,whose fifth floor also has thefacility to provide stem celltransplantation, as part of anexercise to bring the state-of-the-art medical facilities tothe poor in general and Aaro-gyasri card holders in partic-ular.

The hospital, offering treat-ment in 28 super specialty win-gs has been taking care of liverand kidney transplantationcases.

Besides these, the hospitalhas set up eight transplantationsuits. The stem cell depa-rtment, coming under the uro-logy department, has been setup at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

In creating the stem celldepartment, NIMS directorDr K Manohar took specialinterest. It may be recalled thatthe hospital runs general out-patient department besidesthe evening out patients' ser-vices. To access the outpatientservices, one has to pay Rs 500.

The patients would have topay an additional Rs 200towards the fees if they want toavail consultation of another

medical department havingobtained the health card fortreatment of one department.The card validity would be 14days.

NIMS has introduced healthcheck-up packages in the oldbuilding, where it offered Cathlab services earlier.

A wellness center is beingrun in the building and alsoAyush services. Ayush centersensitises patients on foodhabits and offers yoga therapy.Similarly, the wellness centerhas Ayush and health check-uppackages. The NIMS has beendrawing up plans to providefood courts too.

Mobile phonesnatcher held,bike seized PNS n HYDERABAD

A 26-year-old man was appre-hended by the Commission-er's Task force, Central ZoneTeam, for his involvement intheft cases in Hyderabad andCyberabad areas. The officialsrecovered three snatched andstolen cell phones and seizeda bike used in the commissionof offence worth Rs 1.20 lakhfrom his possession.

The accused was identifiedas Kuncham Koti, a residentof Ganesh ghat in Jiyaguda.

Based on credible informa-tion, the police apprehendedthe accused and recovered thesnatched and stolen smart-phones from his possession.

The accused along withproperty, was handed over toSaifabad Police.

Maruthi Rao might haverealised his mistake: KinPNS n HYDERABAD

Soon after the news about Ma-ruthi Rao's death, his daughter,Amrutha cleared the air aboutspeculations that he had sentfeelers to her about a compro-mise deal vis-à-vis property inlieu of her clean chit to him inthe killing of her husbandand his son-in-law two yearsback. "I got to know of hisdeath through news channels.We don't even have confirma-

tion on whether it is true ornot. I cannot say anything asof now but perhaps tomorrowwhen I get to know every-thing," was her reaction.

She further said, "I was notin contact with him. If he hasindeed committed suicide, hemight have realised his mis-take. But if there's any otherreason, I don't know. I havenot seen him since Pranay'sdeath. All I can think is that hemight have regretted. "

Maruthi Rao accused in... Continued from Page 1

Rao, along with others, wasnamed among the keyaccused in the murder ofPerumalla Pranay Kumar, aDalit who had married Rao'sdaughter after a love affair.The video of Pranay beinghacked to death went viral inSeptember 2018.

The Superintendent ofPolice of Nalgonda, A VRanganath, told themedia:"We have got informa-tion from the relatives ofMaruti Rao here that he com-mitted suicide in Hyderabad."

Amrutha Varshini has fileda petition in High Court seek-ing expeditious trial in thecase against her father. TheDalit family of Pranay is alsoworking on it. Police hadfiled a tight charge- sheetwith all evidence. Maruti Raowas trying to delay the trialthrough legal methods.However, as the chances werebleak and his trial was immi-

nent, he may have taken theextreme step, it is said. "Girijakshaminchu, Amrutha ammadaggaraki raa," said the suicidenote found in the room, whichtranslates to "Forgive meGirija. Amrutha come back toyour mother", mentioning hiswife and daughter. Policerecovered the small piece ofpaper kept on the dressingtable in the room in which hehad stayed during the night.

Police suspect that he con-sumed an unknown poison,though they did not findtraces of any such substance inthe room. "We are ascertain-ing whether he had consumedthe poison before arriving orafter entering the room.Further, we are also probing ifhe spoke to anyone over thephone in the night. As hissmart phone could be vitalevidence and provide moreclues to the suicide, it has beenseized and will be sent forforensic examination," thepolice said.

Men make way for women in Chilkur Balaji templePNS n HYDERABAD

Girls are considered a form ofgoddess Mahalalshmi in ourculture. But, many are increas-ingly becoming insensitivetowards girls today. If you lookat the male-female ratio, tho-ugh the girls are in low num-bers, they are not treated prop-erly. We had decided to sensi-tise the society on the need torespect women and girls prop-erly, said chief priest at Chilkurtemple CS Rangarajan.

All the women at the templeassembled for worship for 10min in Chilkur on Sunday. For10 min it was all women andgirls near dhwajasthambhamand the men were briefedabout the respect due towomen in Chilkur.

It was International Wom-en's Day and it was a great wayof reiterating Chilkur BalajiTemple's commitment to

restore the status of women inthe society. Rangarajan hadreminded the devotees how inthe past an ancient forgotten

tradition became a means forspreading awareness on caringfor girl children.

While the priests chanted the

name of goddess Mahalakshmi108 times, the students wereapplied turmeric and made toperform certain rituals.

‘WALK FOR GLORY’ MARKS SCRWOMEN'S DAY CELEBRATIONS

Metro helps women employees achieve goalsL&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited

(L&TMRHL) organised InternationalWomen's Day celebrations across all thethree corridors of Hyderabad Metro Rail,emphasising on Sunday. The theme 'EqualWorld is an Enabled World' and 'Each forEqual' were very well received by thewomen passengers and staff. Managingdirector of L&TMRHL KVB Reddy stated,"Hyderabad Metro Rail is committed towomen's empowerment and will strive forgender equality at all levels across the

organisation. The theme for International Women's Day is, I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women'sRights. Hyderabad Metro Rail helps and supports women employees, to achieve their work-life balance,while ensuring work satisfaction at all times so that they are be able to meet both professional andpersonal goals." The best example of women empowerment Hyderabad Metro Rail can boast of are itswomen train operators. A typical day of a woman train operator shows how a woman plays different rolesin a day, both as a professional and as a homemaker or as a daughter.

HYDERABAD: To mark the occasion of Women's Day, a rally ‘Walk forGlory' has been organised by South Central Railway on Sunday. Generalmanager Gajanan Mallya, Additional General Manager BB Singh, presi-dent of SCR Women's Welfare Organization Jayanthi Mallya, officers,staff and women employees along with their family members participatedin the rally with enthusiasm. Speaking on the occasion, Gajanan Mallyacomplemented the women associated with SCR and lauded theircontribution in different spheres of activity. He stated that around 11 percent of SCR's work force are women.

Amid virusspread, handsanitizers...

Continued from Page 1

The Himalaya DrugCompany tweeted it "willtake action against thosewho are responsible forthis". "This is to clarifythat we have notincreased the rates of ourPureHands HandSanitizers. The rates ofour sanitizers have beenillegally increased byunauthorised third-partysellers. We are not associ-ated with these unscrupu-lous sellers in any way.These are illegal prac-tices and must be dealtwith firmly in accordancewith law," Himalayatweeted. Five of a familyin Kerala have tested pos-itive for coronavirus, tak-ing the total number ofinfected people in thecountry to 39 today.

The coronavirus wasfirst detected at a seafoodmarket in China'sWuhan, from where itspread quickly to othercountries.

Be a water warrior, says PM's Twitter account handler PNS n HYDERABAD

Kalpana Ramesh, one of theseven women achievers whotook over Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's social mediaaccounts on the InternationalWomen's Day on Sunday, is awater warrior.

An architect, who specialisesin interiors, Kalpana advocatesrainwater harvesting. Her solu-tion is simple -- channelise therainwater from rooftops to astorage tank to reduce depen-dence on tankers.

Kalpana, who shifted toHyderabad from the US morethan a decade ago, hit upon the

idea when she saw the city'sdependence on tankers andwater cans. As her family alsohad to order tankers every weekto meet water requirement, she,along with husband, began har-vesting rainwater on their ter-race.

According to her, water con-servation is simple. All that isrequired is outflow pipes fromthe terrace to a sump. Thewater passes through a small fil-ter bed of coal and sand toremove soil and leaves andflows into the storage tank.

Since she installed a tank inher house in the Gachibowliarea to collect rainwater, her

family no longer requirestankers.

A volunteer with the Society

for Advancement of HumanEndeavour (SAHE), she is notonly creating awareness onwater conservation but alsohelping homeowners, apart-ment complexes and offices toharness rainwater. Followingthe success, she and her teamlaunched the initiative to recy-cle grey water. Under this initia-tive, water that flows out fromshowers and kitchen is directedtowards a physical filtering sys-tem before leading to a tank andthen to a recycling unit toremove chemicals. This recycledwater can be used for gardeningand cleaning purposes.

The garden in Kalpana's

house is nourished by recycledwater. She has several fruit treesand a small vegetable garden onthe terrace.

With the SAHE volunteers,Kalpana promoted the 'Save10K bores' initiative to helprevive defunct borewells, bydirecting rainwater to a rechargepit in the vicinity. She has gotaround 200 families in andaround the city to repair theirdefunct borewells and adoptwater harvesting methods.Working hand-in-hand withthe GHMC and a couple ofNGOs, Kalpana is now a part ofthe City Lake Action Committeeto conserve lakes.

Kalpana Ramesh

Finance Minister T Harish Rao declared that the government would increase itsinternal revenues by focusing on real estate. "Government has establishedmany institutions like Housing Board, Rajiv Swagruha at the time when

real estate was not in existence. At present, real estate has become a bigindustry. Hence, the government has decided to sell the non-performing

assets held by these institutions in a very transparentway to raise revenues," he said. Itmay be recalled that in earlierBudget as well, the governmentdecided to earn revenue to thetune of Rs 10, 000 crore by

selling governmentlands. However, they

couldn't sourcefunds in thisformat. Harish

Rao attributed this delayto continuous elections over

the past one year. Clearing theapprehensions, the Finance Minster said, "Recently, for the first time, we won a case in Supreme Court overvaluable lands, due to Chief Minister's intervention.Now we will concentrate, sell the lands and use themoney for welfare of the poor. We have said directly inthe Budget that we will be selling our lands". HarishRao added that real estate is a big business inHyderabad and due to reorganisation of districts, it isbooming there as well. Harish Rao, speaking about2BHK houses, declared that 1 lakh beneficiaries will getfinancial assistance towards house construction in theensuing financial year. It may be recalled that in itselection manifesto, TRS promised to provide financialassistance to the poor people for constructing doublebedroom houses if they have their own land. Anamount of Rs 11,917 crore has been proposedfor Housing Department in this Budget.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020 hyderabad 04

INDUSTRY

SECTOR

ALLOCATEDFOR

RYTHUBANDHU

PANCHAYATRAJ DEPT

GETS

MUNICIPALADMINISTR-ATION DEPT

FOR LOANWAIVER

EDUCATI

ON

SECTO

R

KALYANA LAKSHMIGODAVARI

RIVER FRONT

Rs 3,498 CrRs 14,000

Crore

Rs 23,005Crore

Rs 14,809Crore

Rs 6,225Crore

Rs 1,350 Cr Rs 300 Cr

Rs 12,144.2

7 Cr

Govt eyes real estate to increase revenue

TS debt rises to Rs 2.29 L CrDebt burden was Rs 1.52L cr in 2017-18, which subsequently increased to Rs 1.75L cr in 2018-19

PNS n HYDERABAD

The total debt of Telanganastate government has breachedRs 2 lakh crore for the firsttime. The Budget presented byFinance Minister T HarishRao on Sunday has estimat-ed the total debt bur-den of TS govern-ment at Rs 2.29lakh crore.

The debtburden was Rs1.52 lakh crorein 2017-18,which subse-q u e n t l yincreased to Rs1.75 lakh crore in2018-19. The gov-ernment has to spendRs 14,615 crore towardspayment of interest alone onthese loans.

As per revised estimated inBudget 2019-20, the debt bur-den has been pegged at Rs 1.99lakh crore. This has further

increased to Rs 2.29 lakh crorein Budget 2020-21.

The government depen-dence on loans for completionof irrigation projects andMission Bhagiratha is said tobe the reason for increasing

debt burden. The govern-ment secured

loans worthRs 22,380crore forirrigationproj e c t sand Rs1 2 , 0 1 0crore for

M i s s i o nBhagiratha

by setting upexclusive corpo-

rations.The interest burden of state

government, which was Rs13,086 crore in 2018-19increased to Rs 14,385 crore in2019-20 and to Rs 14,615 crorenow.

Theinterest

burden of stategovernment, whichwas Rs 13,086 cr in2018-19 increased

to Rs 14,385 crin 2019-20

The allocation made by the Telangana government for education sector in the Budget for the financialyear 2020-21 has come down as compared to previous years. This year, the government has allocatedRs 12,144.27 crore, while it was Rs 12,220.75 crore in 2019-20. Presenting the Budget in the

Assembly, Minister Harish Rao said, "An amount of Rs 10,421 crore has been proposed in this Budgetfor School Education Department. An amount of Rs 1,723.27crore has been proposed for Higher Education Department". Anamount of Rs 100 crore has been proposed for 'Each One Teach

One' initiative, he added. However, the Budget came as adisappointment to the teachers and students. N Ashok Stalin of AISF

said, "The state government is reducing the percentage allocation inbudget every year. In 2014-15 Budget, 10.5 per cent was allocated

to education sector, now in 2020-21 the share of educationsector is 6.63 per cent accounting to Rs 12,144.27

crore. TRS government has not given 30 percent allocation to education following the

Kothari Commission'srecommendations. The Budget is notenough for education sector".In 2014-2015, 10.9 per cent of Budget was

allocated to education followed by 9.71per cent in 2015-16, 8.2 per cent in 2016-17, 8.5 per cent in 2017-18, 7.61 in 2018-19, 6.75 per cent in 2019-2020. In 2019-20 Rs 9,899 crore was allocated. K Ramana president Telangana progressiveteachers federation (TPFT) said, "Theamount (Rs 10,421 crore) is not enoughfor school education. There are 2,54,376vacant teacher posts in the state, 11,000additional classrooms, 2,000 schoolslacking potable water andcompounds. Many schools arerunning with Vidya volunteers. Rs1,723.27 crore earmarked for highereducation is not sufficient foreducation. Universities are facingmany problems due to lack of government funding. There are no VCs and governing bodies and no infrastructure in 12universities in state. Rs 2,650 crorehas been allocated for feereimbursement but the total arrearsare Rs 4,170 crore. These funds arenot adequate".

Shot in the arm for industry sector

‘Kalyana Lakshmi'scheme gets

additional Rs 650 cr

With the number of beneficiaries belonging to theBackward Classes increasing under Kalyana Lakshmischeme, the government has decided to increase the

fund allocation accordingly. Harish Rao proposed to make anadditional allocation of Rs 650 crore in the Budget for thefinancial year 2020-21. The governmentmade a total allocation of Rs 1,350crore for the scheme in the Budget.He said that the additional increasewould benefit 80,000 beneficiariesin the state. Speaking about ShaadiMubarak scheme, Harish Rao saidthat till now, 1,44,301 minoritywomen have benefitted through thescheme. An amount of Rs 1,369crore provided in 2019-20 financial yeartowards minorities welfare will be spentcompletely by the end of this month. Anamount of Rs 1,518.06 crore has beenproposed for the welfare of minorities in theBudget. Harish said that the amountallocated for minorities is being completelyspent. "Previous governments made allocations but neverspent it. This is for the first time in history of Telangana thatall the funds allocated to minorities are completely spent."

Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday presented Rs 1.82lakh crore Budget for the financial year 2020-21, signallinga strong resolve to overcome the economic slowdown. In a

big boost to the industries, thestate government hasproposed Rs 1,500 croretowards industrial incentivesand Rs 1,998 crore towardsdevelopment of industrialsector. Presenting the Budgetin the Assembly, Harish Raosaid, "An amount of Rs 1,500crore is proposed towardsindustrial incentives and Rs1,998 crore has beenproposed towardsdevelopment of industrialsector in this Budget". Lastyear, just about Rs 75 crorewas allocated to industries andseveral representations weremade to the government torelease dues and further

incentives to them. Later, during press briefing, Harish said,"From a meager allocation of Rs 75 crore last year, this time Rs1,500 crore has been allocated for industrial incentives. As themarket economy is slowing down, to give a push to industryand take it further ahead, Rs 1,500 crore incentives are beinggiven". This allocation certainly bought a cheer with FTCCI,which has been asking for allocation of Rs 2,000 crore towardsincentives for the last two years, expressed happiness thatgovernment has given due consideration for their request.Ramakant Inani, senior vice-president, FTCCI said, "We expressour thanks to Chief Minister for allocating Rs 1,500 crore forindustrial incentives which willbring a huge relief to all theunits awaiting for release ofsanctions." Meanwhile, HarishRao said, "TS-iPASS Actenacted by the state hasbecome a boon to the industrialsector. So far, 12,427 industriesobtained permission through thissystem.” There were no directallocations to IT sector.

Last year, justabout Rs 75 crwas allocated to industriesand severalrepresentationswere made to thegovernment torelease duesand furtherincentives to them

For the financialyear 2020-21,the stategovernment has allocated Rs 12,144.27 crfor educationsector, while it was Rs 12,220.75 crfor the financialyear 2019-20

This is for the first time in historyof Telangana that all the fundsallocated to minorities arecompletely spent, says Harish

Rs 300 crfor Godavaririverfront

In a bid to promotetourism along the GodavariRiver, the government has

allocated Rs 300 crore forGodavari Riverfront project.“Because of completion ofKaleshwaram project, Godavari riverwill flow for 150km live at width of 2-3km for 365 days. Thousands ofpeople from state and other states arevisiting the place and witnessing theproject. We allocated Rs 300 crore forGodavari river frontproject," the FinanceMinister said. "It isa startup grantand we want todo it as bigproject in PPPmode or willinvite privateinvestors. Itwould encouragetourism sector,especially along theGodavari River front with Kaleshwaram and severalother barrages to boost employment and revenue," he added.

Itis a startup

grant and wewant to do it as bigproject in PPP modeor will invite private

investors, saidFinance Minister

25% rise in allocation

for Aasara pensionsT

he Telangana government has allocated Rs 11,758 crore in theBudget for Aasara Pensions as compared to Rs 9,402 croreproposed for the scheme in the previous Budget. Harish Rao

said that there is more than 25 per cent increase in allocationfor Aasara pension. "As per the assurance made in the election

manifesto, I take immense pride in announcing that old agepensions will be given to all the eligible people who areabove 57 years from 2020-21. Due to thisdecision, thenumber ofbeneficiaries ofAasarapensions in theState willincrease fromthe present39,41,976beneficiaries," hesaid. It may berecalled that theGovernment had increasedthe pension amount from Rs 1,000to Rs 2,016 which is being givento senior citizens, widows, beediworkers, filaria victims, singlewomen, handloom weavers, toddytappers and AIDS victims. Disabledpensions was enhanced fromRs 1,500 to Rs 3,016per month.

Theold age

pensions will begiven to all the

eligible people who areabove 57 years from

2020-21, said FinanceMinister Harish

Rao

n The govt hasdecided to

implement farm loanwaiver schemebeginning this

month. Thegovernment has

allocated Rs 6,225crore for this

purpose that willbenefit over five lakhfarmers in the State

who have loans ofless than

Rs 25,000

BOOSTER DOSE

Decline in allocations for

education sector

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020 Hyderabad 05

There is a huge gapbetween allocations andexpenditure for the last sixyears. The govt is not evenspending 60 per cent of theallocations. The govt has toreveal how it increased theBudget from Rs 1.46 lakhcrore last year to Rs 1.82lakh crore this year despitestating that the state isreeling under economiccrisis. The government hasdeceived the farmers byallocating mere funds forloan waiver scheme

— K LAXMANTS BJP state unit president

The Budget for the financialyear 2020-21 is 'unrealistic'.There is no mention ofallocations for employmentand for the distribution ofthree-acre land. We willexplain the people withfigures in the Assemblyduring discussion. The govthad introduced Rs 1.34 lakhcrore Budget during 2019-20financial year and now for theyear 2020-21 thegovernment has increasedthe Budget to Rs 1.84 lakh cr

— MALLU BHATTIVIKRAMARKA

CLP leader

Finance Minister T Harish Rao takes blessings from Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao before presenting the Budget in Telangana State Legislative Assembly on Sunday

NEW BBEGINNING

MAJOR ALLOCATIONS SECRETARIAT DEPARTMENT WISE BUDGET 2020-21Rs in crore

Department Establishment Scheme Grand Expenditure Expenditure Total

Agriculture & Cooperation Department 895.42 23,221.15 24,116.57

Agriculture Marketing & Cooperation Dept. 101.41 7.42 108.83

Animal Husbandry & Fisheries Department 1,409.38 177.00 1,586.38

Backward Class Welfare, Department 453.24 3,903.59 4,356.82

Dept for Women, Children, Disabled & Senior Citizens 827.37 720.82 1,548.20

Energy Department 320.88 10,095.00 10,415.88

Environment, Forest, Science & Technology Dept 781.15 10.32 791.47

Finance Department 31,503.68 60.00 31,563.68

Food & Civil Supplies Department 68.47 2,294.36 2,362.83

General Administration Department 298.41 214.53 512.93

Health, Medical & Family Welfare Dept 3,824.16 2,361.81 6,185.96

Higher Education, Secretariat Department 1,638.04 85.24 1,723.27

Home Department 5,179.22 672.74 5,851.96

Housing Department 1,416.59 10,500.00 11,916.59

Industries & Commerce Department 329.98 1,668.21 1,998.19

Information Technology & Communications 2.78 25.30 28.08

Irrign. and Command Area Development Dept 7,446.97 3,606.58 11,053.55

Labour and Employment Department 289.26 107.78 397.05

Law Department 807.73 115.70 923.44

Legislative Secretariat 148.21 0.00 148.21

Minorities Welfare Department 379.60 1,138.45 1,518.06

Municipal Administration & Urban Development Dept. 1,261.98 13,546.97 14,808.95

Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Dept 4,701.04 18,304.31 23,005.35

Planning Department 71.41 4,158.13 4,229.53

Public Enterprises Department 1.27 0.00 1.27

Rain Shadow Areas Development Department 0.54 0.00 0.54

Revenue Department 2,348.28 215.88 2,564.17

Scheduled Castes Development Department 237.91 2,372.28 2,610.19

Secondary Education, Secretariat Department 9,113.11 1,307.83 10,420.94

Transport, Roads and Building Department 1,930.39 1,563.27 3,493.67

Tribal Welfare Department 426.26 1,859.98 2,286.24

Youth Advancement, Tourism and Culture Dept 87.66 297.95 385.62

Grand Total 78,301.80 1,04,612.62 1,82,914.42

Total expenditure for 2020-21 is estimated at

Total receipts for 2020-21 are estimated at

Revenue surplus is estimated at

Fiscal deficit is estimated at

Rs 11,82,914.42 ccr

RRss11,,8822,,770011..9944 ccrr

RRss 44,,448822..1122 ccrr

(3.00% of GSDP)

RRss 3333,,119911..2255 ccrr

BUDGET AT A GLANCERs in crore

S N Item BE 2020-21

1 Total Expenditure 1,82,914.42

a) Scheme Expenditure 1,04,612.62

b) Establishment Expenditure 78,301.80

FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES (Rs in crore)

Rythu Bandhu

14,000

2 BHK

10,500

Hyderabad UrbanAgglomeration

10,000Power Subsidy

10,000

Rice subsidy

2,287

Farmers DebtWaiver

6,225

IndustrialIncentives

1,500Insurance to Farmers

1,141

FC includingMatching Grant

5,472

3,500

Aasara

11,758

SpecialDevelopment Fund

1,500

Market InterventionFund & SDF

Kalyana Lakshmi

RTC

1,000

Vaddileni Runalu(Rural)

900

Devalayalu(Temples)

550MBC

500RhythuVedika

350

VaddileniRunalu (Urban)

300

HarithaHaram

300

MicroIrrigation

299

AndarikiVidya

100

CDP

480KCR Kit

443Collectorates &Command Control

550

Mission Bhagiratha(38 Municipalities)

800

3 Total Revenue Receipts 1,43,151.94a) State share in Central Taxes 16,726.58b) State's Own Tax Revenue 85,000.00

of which :Sales Tax 54,000.00State Excise 16,000.00Stamps and Registration 10,000.00Taxes on Motor Vehicles 4,300.00

c) Non Tax Revenue 30,600.00d) Grants from Centre 10,525.364 Total Expenditure 1,46,492.30a) Revenue Expenditure 1,38,669.82b) Capital Expenditure 22,061.18c) Loans and Advances 15,662.20d) Capital Disbursements 6,521.225 Revenue Surplus 4,482.126 Fiscal Deficit 33,191.25

S N Item BE 2020-21

PNS n HYDERABAD

Finance Minister T HarishRao on Sunday came downheavily on Central govern-ment for delaying the releaseof State's share in IntegratedGoods and Services Tax(IGST) and GST compensa-tion. He claimed that for theyear 2019-2020, Rs 933 croreGST claims are pending fromCentral government.

"In 2017-18, we didn'tclaim GST as the state had Rs514 crore extra revenue. In2018-19 we didn't claim GSTdue to 14 per cent cutoff ontax revenue, and state got Rs957crore additionally in formof taxes. In 2019-20, our taxrevenue reduced beyond 14per cent so we need to getclaim. As of Febrarury 2020,our eligibility is Rs 3,193crore in from of GST. Wereceived Rs 2,263 crore inform of GST. This is act, sowithout even reducing Rs 1,they (Centre) have to give usmoney. But Rs 933 crore isstill pending from the Centerthat too until February, again

March, GST sumwill change,"he said. TheF i n a n c eMinis tera l s on o t e dthat forI G S T ,C e n t r ehas to giveabout Rs2,300 crore.S p e a k i n gabout tax devolu-tion, Harish said, "Taxdevolution for Rs 2019-20 onVote-On-Account Budgetwas Rs 20,583 crore, but infull Budget they (Center)

reduced it to Rs19,719 crore. Rs

864 crore wasr e d u c e dfrom VoteO nAccount tofull Budgetand in ther e c e n t

revised esti-mates , tax

devolution isfurther reduced

to Rs 15,988 crore.Full Budget to revised

estimates, tax devolutionwas reduced by Rs4595 crore for statefor 2019-20". He

took potshots at the Centrefor not implementingFif teenth FinanceCommission (FFC). "Centralgovernment, where there is aneed for reduction theyreduced and implementedFFC interim report. Butwherever they had to giveallocations, they didn't. FFCnot only reduced devolutionfrom 42 percent to 41 percentbut also reduced our state's2.437 tax devolution to 2.133for FY2021. This will lead toreduction of Rs 2384 crore indevolution. Same FFC asked

the center to g iveRs734crore grant to cen-ter, but the center didnot accept it," he said.He stated that the 6 percent growth is only staterevenue, the overallgrowth is around 10.5-11 per cent this year.

Even in debts we arewell within

F R B Ml i m i t s ,he fur-t h e rsaid.

In 2017-18, we didn't claim GST as the statehad Rs 514 crore extra revenue. In 2018-19we didn't claim GST due to 14 per cent cutoff

on tax revenue. In 2019-20, our tax revenue reducedbeyond 14 per cent so we need to get claim. As ofFebrarury 2020, our eligibility is Rs 3,193 crorein from of GST

T HARISH RAO, Finance Minister

Budget unrealistic, misleading: CongressPNS n HYDERABAD

Former Minister MohammedAli Shabbir has described theBudget for the financial year2020-21, presented by FinanceMinister T Harish Rao inAssembly on Sunday, as com-pletely unrealistic, fictitiousand imaginary.

He was addressing a pressconference at Gandhi Bhavanalong with senior leadersincluding MLA Seethakka,former union minister BalramNaik, ex-MPs Mallu Ravi, TRajaiah and KondaVishveshwar Reddy, ex-MLAT Rammohan and other lead-ers.

Shabbir Ali said there wasan increase by a whopping Rs40,762 crore in the Budget

compared to the revisedBudget for the year 2019-20.He said Rs 1,82,914 croreBudget was totally unrealisticand misleading.

He pointed out that ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao presented an Vote-on-Account Budget of Rs1,82,017 crore for 2019-20 inFebruary 2019. Citing eco-nomic slowdown as the rea-son, the Budget was trimmed

and the Chief Minister pre-sented a full-fledged Budgetin September 2019 cuttingdown the total estimatedexpenditure to Rs 1,46,492crore.

It was later revised to Rs1,42,152 crore. However, theoverall revenues of Telanganagovernment till the end ofJanuary 2020, as per CAG,were Rs 1,05,992 crore,including loans of Rs 26,383

crore. This may not evenreach the set target in the nexttwo months and may stayaround Rs 1.10 lakh crore. Isit not unrealistic to have aBudget of Rs. 1.82 lakh crore,when your revenues arejust Rs 1.10 lakhcrore? he asked.

"How will theg o v e r n m e n tgather addition-al revenues of Rs70,000 crore inthe next oneyear? Will it bor-row more loans orsell away properties,lands and other assets ofTelangana?" he asked.

"Finance Minister haswrongly said that the Budgetwas not about figures written

on papers but a reflection ofsocial values. Budget is not apolitical speech. It is abouthardcore statistics of income,revenue sources and expendi-ture. Government is spending

people's money and ithas to be done in an

appropriate man-ner. StateG o v e r n m e n tmust be account-able for each andevery paisa of tax

payers ' moneywhich is being

spent," he said.The Congress leader

said the Rythu Bandhuscheme was not implementedproperly and many farmerswere yet to receive thepromised assistance.

It's farmers’ Budget,says Niranjan ReddyPNS n HYDERABAD

Agriculture MinisterSingireddy Niranjan Reddyon Sunday termed the Budgetas a reflection of ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao's determination and aspi-rations. He said the Budgetreiterated that the govern-ment was pro-farmer and theBudget was a farmer's Budget.

The Minister expressedhappiness over higher alloca-tions for agriculture and itsallied sectors. He appreciatedadditional allocation of Rs2,000 crore to Rythu Bandhuscheme. He said additionalallocation was needed as the

number of beneficiaries hadincreased. He said allocationsfor Rythu Beema, loan waiversand Rythu Vedikas for every5,000 acres were the deci-sions that would further boostthe confidence of the farmersin State.

Terming the decision toallocate Rs 1,000 crore formarket intervention fund asbrave, the Minister said thedecision would help stabiliseeconomy thereby saving thefarmer from distress sales. Hesaid the budget allocated fundsfor seed subsidy, dairy, sprin-kler and drip irrigation,round-the-clock free electric-ity and irrigation sector.

‘Budget gives maximum relief to farmers’PNS n HYDERABAD

The Budget for the financialyear 2020-21 reflects the trueaspirations of Telangana people,said Endowments MinisterAllola Indrakaran Reddy.

The Minister, who met withChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao in theState Assembly after the presen-tation of the annual Budget,thanked him for allocating Rs

500 crore for development oftemples in the State andRs 50 crore for main-taining daily ritualsin the temples. Healso thanked theChief Minister forallocating Rs 791crore for ForestDepartment.

"Despite the nation-wide economic slowdown, theState has given priority to wel-

fare, agriculture, health, educa-tion, power, and infra-

structure sectors whileallocating funds inthe Budget," he said.

He pointed outthat the governmenthas set aside consid-

erable amount offunds for alleviation

of poverty, welfare offarmers, agriculture, Palle andPattana Pragathi programmes.

Rs 3 crore to each MLA, MLCunder CDPTowards development ofconstituencies of MLAs andMLCs, the Budget for 2020-21has allocated Rs 3 crore to eachMLA and MLC and guidelineswill be issued shortly for thesame. The Budget hasearmarked Rs 480 crore underthe head of ConstituencyDevelopment Programme (CDP).Also, the government, with aview to provide offices for MLAsin their constituencies, decidedto build offices in allconstituencies.

Harish wrongly said that the Budget was notabout figures written on papers but a reflectionof social values. Budget is not a political

speech. It is about hardcore statistics of income,revenue sources and expenditure

— SHABBIR ALI, Congress leader

Harish Rao slams Centre over pending GST claims

2,240

Now that the embers of the Delhiriots are being washed away byan unseasonal rain, drowningthe sad memories of how we canbecome refugees in our own

land, there is talk about “heroes.” There arereports of how Hindu families shelteredMuslim neighbours in the city’s northeast-ern parts as the mob rampaged through theirhomes and hearths. There have beenumpteen reports about Hindu samaritanshelping the battered and bruised, rushingthem to hospitals, arranging aid supplies andsetting up shelters. There was also this reportof a Hindu man taking down a saffron flagfrom atop a desecrated shrine and restoringour faith in humanity. Some would say thisrepresents the syncretism of our civilisation-al ethos, the fabric of a cultural legacy thatcan never be torn asunder, the equality ofhumans as it is meant to be. Others, depend-ing on which side of the discourse they areon, would probably call it the big-hearted-ness of a triumphalist faith over another. Butin the end, it is all about characterising a gooddeed, even lionising it as one, rather than nor-malising it that is deeply troublesome. It isthis need for categorising our behavioural pat-tern that represents why “otherisation” hasdeeply penetrated us at the societal level.

So much so that the majoritarian guiltsyndrome is just as consciously executed orrecognised as the awareness of minority vic-timhood. I am glad I grew up in Kolkata,where the cheek by jowl co-existence that weneed to define so fervently these days wasalways a lived experience. During my kinder-garten years, it was the Muslim weavers at myfather’s jute factory who would drop me toschool and back, bicycles on normal days, atoptheir shoulders on rainy days. My parentsthought nothing about me playing with theirchildren in the common playgrounds in frontof their staff quarters. I cannot forgetQurbaan, who would buy me clothes fromhis meagre budget during Eid, along withthose for his children. His wife would cookan elaborate feast that he would bring overto the house and we would all partake of theflavours and joys together. He and his fami-ly were a constant in my life till the day I gotmarried. Then there was Abdul at my grand-father’s home in Lucknow, who embodied thesummer afternoons of my long and lazy vaca-tions, when I would read in the courtyard andhe would tell me stories while pounding andmincing meat on his wooden board for thefinest kebabs that I could almost swallow. Ifmy grandfather encouraged my readingthose afternoons, Abdul would regale me withanimated stories and legends of Lucknownagri, so much so that I am still teary-eyedabout this city even when both have gone. Feelit in my pores as the lanes of Qaiserbagh andAminabad. There were many others, drivers,shopkeepers, the candyman, gardener, thebarber and what not, what you would call ser-vice-deliverers in today’s terms. But mybond with them was never about a relation-

ship of convenience. Growing upwith them was in the normal flowof everydayness. It was never tobe screamed out as exception,simply because it was the rule. Itwas also about an informal butworldly-wise education. Today, inretrospect, such experienceswould be labelled as my father’sliberal experiments with classless-ness, his brashness in entrustinga significant part of my childhoodto strangers who were just aboutskilled but not educated enough,and along with my missionaryeducation, an erosion of myHindu mooring. The fact is hehad strengthened it in theprocess.

Nowhere is every puja, be itof Lakshmi, Saraswati orNarayan, solemnised at homewith such frequency as it is inBengal. Be it a bout of jaundiceor malaria, my mother wouldimmediately perform a puja forgratitude and fortitude. Thehome pujas made divinitysupreme over rituals and priori-tised the personal God over theregimented one. The worship ofDurga and her Kali avatars,which the zamindars turned intohuge community, all-faith affairs,has historically codified plurali-ty as a socio-cultural-religiouscredo. In the Bengal that I grewup in, pujas were a matter of peo-ple’s pride, an efflorescence of itscreative expression, not an emo-tion to be whisked and shreddedto prove a point. By throwing meinto this eco-system, my fatherhad never ever betrayed his painand anxieties over the Partition,of which he was a sufferer. He

knew displacement, denial anddestruction first hand but choseto resolve it his way like manyothers, levelling the furrows thanupturning them further. He wasvery particular about not privi-leging anyone over any other.

He found solace along theriver at Dakshineswar, a Shaktipeeth dedicated to Kali and hermost ardent devotee, SriRamakrishna Paramahansa, whoembraced a multi-faith approachto divinity as a cosmic essence,soul evolution as the only enlight-enment. Swami Vivekananda,who carried on his legacy andwho kept Hinduism relevant asa world religion, is sadly onlyquoted for exhibitionism whilehis plurality gets trampled day inand day out.

Midway through life now,through its many comedies andtragedies, weddings and funerals,there have been Muslim friends,peers and colleagues who havestood by me as steadfastly as fam-ily. Quite naturally. So it bothersme immensely when they ques-tion their Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb,when they ask whether their par-ents and grandparents were rightin choosing India as homelandduring Partition or when theywonder about applying for citi-zenship or work visas overseas.How does one console them fortheir systematic marginalisation,the dilution of their stakeholder-ship in nationhood? There is noexplaining to young Muslimshow their ancestors fought theelitist Muslim League’s imag-ined fears of slavery in a majori-tarian land, when current truth

is stranger than past fiction.Would we have imagined mark-ing the entrance to our homeswith religious motifs as a neces-sity than choice? Or thoughtabout reconverting shrines thatare few centuries old than build-ing new ones? Would we haveimagined classifying vegetablesand meat as Hindu or Muslim?That’s precisely what is happen-ing in Uttar Pradesh, with ven-dors tagging their religion ontheir signages. So after identitytheft, there is going to be an eco-nomic denial. As a “not so god-fearing Hindu,” hosting guests fordinner with decided preferencescould now be tricky business.

The politics of otherisationhas finally set in. It is an accumu-lation of prejudices, both latentand overt, simply because it nowhas a stamp of officialese cour-tesy a regime which predicatesreligion as not only proof of iden-tity but loyalty. It has seeped inbecause of a nationalist thoughtfactory that spins history lessonsas a retrospective duel with inva-sions than learning lessons fromthem. You cannot blame the fun-damentalist fringe like BajrangDal or Vishwa Hindu Parishadanymore. For their thinking ismainstream now, accepted by theeducated elite in drawing rooms.They may have pushed in fromthe fringes but it is the porosityof the intelligentsia which hasyielded to their osmotic pressure.Because we need an excuse to jus-tify our failures. And an easy oneat that. Unlike the economy,global trade winds and povertythat we have no control over, we

need an aggressor we can tamevisibly. So we have created a newenemy within our own andtransferred all our non-func-tioning abilities to “termites”and “viruses” detected after 70years of incubation. Mainstreamacceptance is the most dreadedmonster, for it means obeyinghanded down guidelines andabjuring any responsibilitytowards nation-building.

The establishment’s segrega-tory policies and practices havehurt and alienated the enlight-ened “Indian Muslims” whom itis so desperate to reassure in pub-lic. Not that the latter aren’t try-ing; if the recent protests over thecitizenship law are any indica-tion, then Muslims haveemerged as rightful citizens pro-tecting their existence than out-sourcing their crusade to eitherthe clergy or votebank politi-cians. Many elite Muslims, so farconfined to their own spheres ofexcellence, are now stepping upas demanding citizens. Yet theyfeel vulnerable without thearmour of a stereotype. Thoughthere have been no major sepa-ratist protests that you wouldassociate with minorityism inother nations, we could see a rad-icalisation of an unknown kindif justice fails them now. For the“Indian Muslims” have neversought any autonomy or privi-leges as their co-religionists inKashmir have, and they haveexisted pan-India with local sen-sibilities. They have consideredIndia their holy land.

The public parade of anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh,some of them proven activists,presenting them in a rogue’sgallery and recovering costs ofdamage to public property fromthem, legitimises this hatred asmainstream and taints an entirecommunity with the same brush.There is no room for dissent, justacquiescence. No space for con-science, but extremism.

What we once dismissed ashilarious is dead serious.Consider the diktat warningMuslim men against marryingHindu girls or women or thetoxic masculinity of Hindu mendeclaring their right to marryKashmiri women post the abro-gation of Article 370. Such claimsare finding a ready receptacle indrawing room chatter overevening drinks. A Hindu may notknow all stanzas of VandeMataram but a Muslim unable torecite them — albeit under fearof the gun as seen in the Delhiriots — is a traitor. It is not thatMuslims haven’t been ghettoisedor targetted before for politicalgains. They have. But the prob-lem now is that we have cast themaway in the poisonous gas cham-bers of our minds.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammedbin Salman, who uses the self-styledmoniker of MbS, has been projecting him-

self as an energetic reformer, a modernist witha deep understanding of and respect for whatthe people, especially the youth, want. Thegrandiose plans laid out by him to pull his coun-try back from the dark ages, especially with itsdipping oil potential, through a series of eco-nomic and foreign initiatives, have received inter-national acclaim. But the fact remains that nomatter how benevolent he might want to be seen

as, he is an absolutist and autocrat. He has no qualms in stifling criticism overthe image he has crafted, locking up not only fellow members of the royal fam-ily but activists, religious moderates and even young economists questioning his“Vision 2030” programme. Not to forget the hit he purportedly ordered againstcolumnist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. So his latest crackdown on his family, includ-ing two senior princes, over treason, isn’t shocking. Clearly, this is another moveto stamp his authority over the entire kingdom, which until now was headed bypowerful branches of the ruling family. The detention of the two princes meansthere cannot be any more challengers. Clearly, he doesn’t want the ghosts of hiscontroversial ascension to haunt him. Breaking all norms, he was appointed theyoungest heir apparent in Saudi history despite being the seventh son. Other mem-bers of his family, including the more experienced cousin Mohammed bin Nayef,who has now been detained, were sidelined or placed under house arrest. Hemay silence the royal house but can he silence the growing criticism over histransformational intent?

When he took over in 2017, Bin Salman at first was carefully progressive,allowing women to drive, cracking down on hardliners, diversifying the country’soil-based economy, jumpstarting non-oil industries and making technologicaladvancements. In the process, he ensured that the supremacy of the royal housewasn’t diluted, claiming that revolution could come only from the highest seat ofpower and not from the people. That explains his provocative crackdowns on thethe intelligentsia, which has elicited international condemnation. And now that hismodernisation and economic uplift are in tatters — oil prices have plunged about30 per cent since January — Bin Salman has only his strategic worth to fall backupon. For the US, to counter Iran, and for India, to neutralise Pakistan.

In a breather in these hyper-choked times ofregulated democracy and a big relief to rights-based groups, the Supreme Court has ruled

that the Government cannot stop foreign fund-ing of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)that fight citizens’ causes through democraticmeans. In other words, it spares them frombeing punished for dissent or protest overdeclared Government policies that impinge onhuman rights. Further, it grants them the con-stitutional right to be heard and conduct theircampaigns fairly without fear of hitbacks or

clampdowns. Through its consecutive regimes, the Narendra Modi Governmenthas often run down civil rights movements as a conspiracy of the West to besmirchIndia’s image and present a lopsided view of our rights record. Its crackdown onforeign funding of “unfriendly” non-profit organisations had led to a whopping 40per cent fall in overseas fund flows by 2017-18, says an industry report by Bain& Co. About 20,000 NGOs were affected. The ruling is significant simply becauseit re-establishes the primacy of democratic practices at a time when they are underthreat of being stifled. The court said that curtailing an NGO’s right to access for-eign donations was in violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles19(1)(a) and 19(1)(c) of the Constitution relating to free speech and peacefulprotests. Ending two contentious provisions of the Foreign ContributionRegulation Act (FCRA), 2010, that allowed the Government to clamp down onall dissent and critiques, the court held that if an NGO was not pursuing a polit-ical goal or objective, it could not be penalised for supporting public causes throughdemonstrations and strikes. In other words, the anti-CAA or student protests can-not be legally classified as being foreign-funded. The ruling also ends confusionover what qualifies as “political interests”, an amorphous code that the Governmenthad been using to disqualify movements or groups opposed to it. Earlier, Rule 3(vi) of FCRA was categorical that any NGO, which used common protest meth-ods like strikes, shutdowns, sit-ins, demonstrations, rail roko or jail bharo agita-tions in support of public causes, could be declared as an organisation of a “polit-ical nature.” This provision gave the Government unguided and limitless powersto label any organisation it didn’t like as mischievous in intent and cancel its for-eign funding. Now, as per the court order, the Centre is required to take into accountthe activities and ideology of the NGO, including its association with activities ofany political party, before declaring it as an organisation of “political nature.” Whilehitting out at the Government, the apex court also restricted other political par-ties from having front organisations and funnelling funds, saying such outfits wouldnot escape the rigour of the Act if evidence was strong enough.

Many civil society bodies, including the Indian Social Action Forum, TARSHIDelhi, Ford Foundation, Greenpeace India, Amnesty International India and the Centrefor Social Justice, have been fighting against the “abuse of legal procedures” and“the use of the FCRA as a tool of repression.” Even India’s top human rights watch-dog, the National Human Rights Commission, had issued a notice to the HomeMinistry on the issue in 2018. Still, it cancelled the licences of those engaged inrights-based advocacy work. The Home Ministry had time and again justified theseactions, saying it had no place for bias but was just focussing on technical vio-lations of the FCRA. Incidentally, the original FCRA came into force in 1976 dur-ing the Emergency of the Congress era and prohibited MPs, electoral candidates,political parties, judges and media organisations from accepting foreign contri-butions. However, the FCRA was amended by the Finance Bill 2016 and thosechanges made it more severe than its predecessor as it targetted “organisationsof a political nature.” The new law also put a 50 per cent cap on the proportionof foreign donations, thereby controlling the way NGOs spent their money andmade it mandatory for them to renew their licence every five years. This gavethe Government the power to decide whether an NGO could renew its licence ornot. In its continued onslaught, the Government had also cut short the term ofNachiket Mor, the country director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, from theRBI’s central board after the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch lobbied forhis removal. As the Central bank oversees funding for NGOs coming from abroad,Mor was believed to act as a facilitator of liberal interests rather than being a pro-ponent of Government agenda. However, thanks to the judiciary, once again thedemocratic right to freedom of expression will remain alive and kicking.

Bitcoin safeguards

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Bit allowed” (March 5). There ismuch more to the SupremeCourt’s order lifting the ban oncryptocurrency imposed by theReserve Bank of India (RBI) earlyin 2018 than just opting for a newvehicle for transmission of funds.While the industry has hailed theapex court’s order, it is notewor-thy that it has not given in-prin-ciple approval to cryptocurrencyexchanges. This form of trade callsfor constant upgrade of antimoney laundering laws and moreimportantly, data privacy. Even inthe US, where crypto trading islegal, Facebook’s new digital cur-rency, the Libra project, faced stiffresistance from regulators due toprivacy concerns.

Nevertheless, the top court’sverdict will have broader conno-tations. It will encourage Indianregulators to be open to newertechnologies even as they honetheir skills in designing pragmat-ic fire walls around misuse. Thereis much toil ahead in every sphereas technology forces a paradigmshift from familiar hearths.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

Mounting crisis

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Train wreck” (March 7). Thecrisis at Yes Bank has exposed thedeep loopholes in the Indianbanking system. Bad loans, fraudsand boardroom feuds are some of

the issues afflicting the Indianbanking sector. These crises havenow taken a toll on the bank’s cus-tomer-focussed approach, whichotherwise used to be the prima-ry goal. In Yes Bank’s case, theReserve Bank of India (RBI)failed to take lessons from the

PMC bank crisis. It should havestepped in at the right timeinstead of acting when the panicbutton was pressed.

The State Bank of India(SBI)’s takeover bid may result indelayed transactions, thus invit-ing customer’s ire. All focus must

now be on hastening the acqui-sition process. The RBI, too,must be unanimous in itsapproach to rescue banks, be itprivate or co-operative.

Varun DambalBengaluru

Maintain discipline

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“House row over riots” (March 7).Parliamentary proceedings areusually synonymous with pande-monium. But what happenedrecently was a new low for ourtemple of democracy. It was all butexpected that the communal vio-lence that engulfed northeastDelhi would take centrestage inParliament. It’s a pity that theOpposition and Treasury bench-es clashed with each other over theissue. Unruly behaviour by parlia-mentarians won’t help in deter-mining the whys and whereforesof the mayhem. If the Oppositionwants to hold the Governmentaccountable, it has to be done byusing clear words and arguments.

JS AcharyaNew South Wales

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020

06

Prejudice the new normal

RINKU GHOSH

The politics of otherisation has now reached the chambers of our minds with a stamp ofofficialese, courtesy a regime that predicates religion as not only proof of identity but loyalty

This country has elected in ademocratic manner a terroraccused to Parliament butwhen I asked questions to theruling dispensation, I waslabelled as anti-national. Why?

Actor—Swara Bhaskar

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Resolve banking crisis before it’s too late

This refers to the editorial, “Train wreck” (March 7).Months after the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperativebank rendered depositors helpless, the present cri-

sis at Yes Bank has raised doubts over the way privatesector banks are regulated in the country. This has erod-ed public’s confidence in financial institutions. It’s goodthat the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) acted swiftly to takecharge of Yes Bank and announced a reconstructionscheme, too, but why did it wake up so late?

The blow-up at Yes Bank was long in the making.Two years ago, the Central bank had itself forced co-promoter Rana Kapoor to step down. And now, with thebank being placed under a moratorium, a withdrawallimit of `50,000 per month has been fixed. Why shouldthe depositors or businesses suffer? It’s not just aboutthe savings of the common man being at stake. The cri-sis has affected the stock market, too. After the Centralbank’s intervention, Yes Bank’s scrip crashed by as muchas a whopping 84.94 per cent to hit its 52-week low of`5.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). On theNational Stock Exchange (NSE), it declined as much as84.65 per cent to `5.65.

For that matter, why should public sector banks

(PSBs) always take the burden to rescue private banks?It is also true that the Government’s sole focus has beenon reforming PSBs, which are faced with mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) and heavy loan defaults. TheGovernment has two challenges now. One, to protect theinterest of depositors and second, it has to maintain-ing trust in the private banking system. This episodeshould call for quick reforms in the banking sector.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Saudi crackdownEverybody, when they lookat citizenship, has a contextand a criterion. Show me acountry which says everybody in the world iswelcome. Nobody says that.

External Affairs Minister—S Jaishankar

SC clears foreign funding for voluntary bodies crusading for public causes and civil rights

Mohammed bin Salman has detained familymembers seen as threats to his rule yet again Hindus are in danger in a

true sense under the ModiGovernment. The money in banks is of majorityHindus which is not safe now.

Congress leader—Sachin Sawant

Relief for civil society

Vajpayee was Prime Ministerfor six years, Manmohan Singhfor 10 years, this is the sixthyear for Modi. During his peri-od, RBI has become like adepartment of Finance Ministry.

Former Prime Minister —HD Deve Gowda

Last week the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) took control of oneof the country’s top-five private

sector lenders, Yes Bank, and imposedlimits on withdrawals. This has trig-gered confusion and fear amongaccount holders. But was this the firstcase or do we have a history of bankfailures?

Bank frauds and banks in crisishave been an integral part of India’sfinancial history as between 1935 and1947, nearly 900 banks failed. This wasfollowed by 665 banks going bust inthe period from 1947 till nationalisa-tion of private banks in 1969. In fact,one of the major reasons for theGovernment’s decision to nationalisethe biggest banks in the country was

their repeated failures. After 1969, theRBI became highly conservative andno new bank licences were issued till1994, when 10 new banks were givenpermits. In the early 2000s, two morebanks were given licences, followed byanother two in 2014. Since then, onlya few special banks like local areabanks, payments banks and smallfinance banks have been licensed.

Why Yes Bank failed: The YesBank crisis was a long time coming.The RBI had raised concerns over cor-porate governance lapses and thedeteriorating quality of the bank’sloan books in the last few years. YesBank rapidly expanded its corporateloan book by aggressively lending tocorporates. Rana Kapoor, then-Managing Director and CEO, isknown to be a risk-taker, lending toeven stressed companies. The crisiswas an accident waiting to happensince 2008, when the global econom-ic recession shook the world. While theworld economy tanked and marketswent into panic mode, there wasabsolutely no impact on Yes Bank andall through 2008-2010, Rana Kapoorcontinued to giving loans to both com-panies and individuals. In fact, one

financial magazine reported, “Ifnobody will lend you money, RanaKapoor certainly will. Many an indus-trialist has lived for a good part of thelast decade or more with this unshake-able belief.” Those taking a loan fromthe bank were required to pay anupfront fee, which in turn was used torun the bank.

A bank that started from scratchand built an asset book of over ̀ 3 lakhcrore in a little over a decade was sign-ing away cheques to nearly every bor-rower, who either went bust or turnedinto a non-performing asset (NPA)within years. Yes Bank gave loans toalmost every stressed entity in India,including IL&FS, Dewan Housing, JetAirways, Cox & Kings, CG Power andCafe Coffee Day and so on. A foreignbanker, Kapoor was a well-known facein the corporate sector and used to cutmost of the deals. This route not onlygave him a higher interest rate but alsohelped him secure a collateral againstthat loan. But when things turned bad,the bank found it difficult to monetisethe collateral either. Take, for instance,the shares it had as collateral in somecases, whose value deterioratedbecause of the slide in the fortune of

the corporate entity. Kapoor thoughtthat he had found his niche by lend-ing to well-known companies whowere finding it difficult to get financesfrom existing lenders. What looked likea masterstroke at the time turned outto be the bank’s nemesis. Yes Bank’sstock hit an all-time high in August2018 and market capitalisation crossed`1 lakh crore. But it began retreatingsoon after and due to capital erosion,the bank was in dire need of freshinvestments. Yes Bank started work-ing on it and Kapoor stepped down inJanuary 2019. Ravneet Gill wasappointed as the new CEO and tookthe reins in March 2019.

In February 2019, the bankannounced that a risk assessmentreport conducted by the RBI did notfind any divergence in the recognitionof bad debts. A day later, RBI pulledup the bank for selectively disclosinga confidential report. The regulatorpointed out that the report hadrevealed several lapses and regulato-ry breaches in the bank’s functioning,and the selective disclosure by the bankwas a deliberate attempt to mislead.

In December 2019 Yes Bank saidtwo investors, SPGP Holdings and

Erwin Braich, were interested in buy-ing stake in it. But after rejection ofBraich’s offer, failure was inevitable.The RBI has superseded the board andwill take charge of it.

Banking regulations in India:Banks in the country are now gov-erned by both international Baselnorms and domestic regulations. TheRBI has extensive powers to inspectbanks and intervene in their opera-tions. Given the fact that banking reg-ulations have only got stringent overtime, all these bank failures are puz-zling.

There are four primary issuesplaguing Indian banks that come to thefore. These are poor decision-makingdue to the lack of capacity to judge pro-ject quality. Plus, there is a structuralasset-liability mismatch due to long-dated assets and short-dated liabilities;a delay in recognising NPAs on thebooks and outright fraud and theabsence of fundamental corporategovernance standards.

While the first two factors havereceived significant coverage and dis-cussion, the last two factors probablydeserve even greater attention goingforward, given the gravity of the situ-

ation. While the first two revolve pri-marily around the skill and capacity ofthe lender to assess sectoral, compa-ny and project risk keeping in mind themicro-structure of their balance sheets,the last two are to a large extent relat-ed to the level of corporate governance.Unless we strengthen corporate gov-ernance, we will keep suffering bankfailures. The Companies (Auditor’sReport) Order 2020 is also a steptowards transparency and accountabil-ity.

Protect your money: The issue ofprotection of bank depositors hasstoked frequent debates. However,these remain academic only as we hadnot seen concrete action on theground on bank loan defaulters.Whatever might be happening in thebanking sector, the tragedy is that thecommon man is always on the receiv-ing end. The Government, in this year’sUnion Budget, announced that theinsurance cover for small depositorshas been increased to ̀ 5 lakh from ̀ 1lakh. This means that at the most,depositors will get back ̀ 5 lakh if theirbank goes out of operation.

Significantly, this is the first timein 27 years that insurance limit on bank

deposits has been revised. Depositinsurance commenced in India witha limit of `5,000 in 1968 and wasrevised to `10,000 two years later in1970. The next revision happened in1976 to `20,000. Again in 1980, thelimit was changed to `30,000 and thelast revision took place in 1993 whenit was increased to `1 lakh. A SBIresearch paper has pointed out that thedeposit coverage in India is one of thelowest in terms of per captia income.

Even the revised cover of `5 lakhis not sufficient. Thus, diversificationholds the key to safeguarding money.People can try and keep their moneyin three-four different banks. Forinstance, a depositor can have oneaccount with a PSB, second accountwith a private bank and another onewith a foreign bank. Also, people canuse the services of the nearest PostOffice for extra safety. Spreading fixeddeposits in various banks and addingexposure to liquid funds or cashfunds of mutual funds, are also somesafe options. This way, depositors willnot be keeping all their eggs in one bas-ket and their nest egg will stay safe.

(The writer is an author and GSTand economics specialist)

STEM the gender gap

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE MEDIA TO KNOW THAT THEEXPOSURE OF YES BANK TO SOME VERY STRESSED

CORPORATES HAS BEEN THERE SINCE BEFORE 2014. —FINANCE MINISTER NIRMALA SITHARAMAN

HOW DID THE LOAN BOOK OF YES BANK JUMP FROM`̀55,633 CRORE IN 2014 TO `̀2,41,499 CRORE IN 2019?IS NO ONE IN RBI OR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE?—FORMER FINANCE MINISTER P CHIDAMBARAM

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

As the world celebrated another Women’s Day,on March 8, this time under the shadow ofthe lethal Coronavirus, with scientists and

medical professionals across the globe workinground the clock to develop a vaccine to counter thevirus, it is pertinent to reflect on the ratherambivalent relationship between gender, on onehand, and research and technology, on the other.From the almost unanimous perception that muchfewer women than men are found in the fields ofscience, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) emerges the paradox that the gender gapin science education is the result of choice ratherthan any constraint. Women, particularly inadvanced societies, voluntarily pursue careers inother fields rather than STEM. This paradoxneeds to be unbundled, especially in the currentgrim environment wherein men and women needto stand shoulder to shoulder to decimate the killervirus and restore normal life and health in the world.

Traditionally, several scholars and policymak-ers have pointed out male domination of STEMfields, with historically low participation of womenin these professions. The reasons for this gender dis-parity are reportedly lack of encouragement fromparents to daughters for pursuing higher studies inmathematics and science and laboratory experiencesand financial resources needed to study these sub-jects, all of which favour men over women. The factthat the privileged professions with high remuner-ations in STEM fields are dotted with men is anundisputed corollary of this gender gap.

A 2018 survey conducted by Mastercard andIncite, titled Revisiting Women in STEM, carried outamong 136 Indian women, working in both STEMand non-STEM jobs, arrived at some intriguingresults. It found that 45 per cent of the womenrespondents working in STEM jobs were dissatis-fied with their current career choice and also didnot expect to continue in the job for their entirework life. Regarding the reasons for this discontent,46 per cent cited the need for constantly updatingtheir skills in STEM careers, 39 per cent were unableto adjust to the long hours and commitment need-ed in these jobs and 36 per cent were apprehensiveof working in a male-dominated office environment.In addition, 24 per cent complained that womenwere less likely to be paid as much as men in thesehigh-profile occupations. All of these are valid rea-sons for women to be wary of joining the scienceand technology bandwagon but they have seriousimplications for attracting bright, young women intothese streams.

The situation is complicated further by the playof discriminatory forces constantly seeking to limitthe frontiers of higher education and employmentfor women, especially in conservative societiesacross India. Academics and experts in the field ofeducation also argue that the gender gap in India’stechnological workforce is an outcome of the lackof both infrastructure and quality teachers in tech-nical institutions of higher learning that fail toaccommodate more women students. This discrim-ination is exacerbated by the persistent male-femaleand urban-rural divide in India’s pedagogicallandscape.

In consonance with these findings, scholarsusing data from the India Human DevelopmentSurvey (IHDS) have also repeatedly asserted that

gender inequality in educational outcomesin India is a product of social back-grounds, access to learning resources andcultural attitudes, which lead parents toprioritise their son’s education overdaughter’s education.

The IHDS, carried out by theNational Council of Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) in collaboration withthe University of Maryland, in two waves,in 2004-05 and 2011-12, points out thatthe prevalence of a gendered educationsystem stemming from India’s patriarchalsociety has created all-round fissures ineducational attainments.

This issue is also flagged up in a 2019paper by leading IHDS researchers at theUniversity of Maryland’s SociologyDepartment titled, The Emergence ofEducational Hypogamy in India. Thepaper argues that though women todayare more likely to be involved in highereducation than before, often even beingmore educated than their spouses, interms of subjects, they are still more rep-resentative in traditionally considered“feminine” fields such as humanities andsocial sciences, while men are more like-ly to be in the STEM fields, which gen-erate higher economic returns in thelabour market.

Coming back to the Coronavirus, inan article in The Independent last week,Ian Hamilton, lecturer in mental healthat the Department of Health Sciences,University of York, takes the discrimina-tion argument further. He claimed thatdue to differences in the immune systemsof men and women, there is a need todevelop two different strains of the vac-cine as women often have more severeadverse reactions and higher antibodyresponses to disease. But sexism is like-

ly to prevent woman-centred research. In such a situation, women may end

up receiving sub-optimal treatment, lead-ing to higher mortality. He cites the exam-ple of the last global pandemic, SARS,when even the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) had pointed to thegender gap in data, specifically relating tothe serious impact of the disease for preg-nant women that was not sufficientlyaddressed by the SARS vaccine.

“From cancer to Coronavirus, thereisn’t an area of health research or sciencethat is not gender-blind. Science, itseems, is institutionally sexist,” fulminatesHamilton. He links this medical sexismto the paucity of women in seniorresearch roles and a gender imbalance intechnological laboratories dominated bymen who may never be able to fullyunderstand a woman’s health experiences.It is also widely suggested that womenmay be found aplenty in early-career lev-els of medical research but their malepeers are more likely to ascend the pro-fessional ladder and become professors.

However, there is light beyond thetunnel, as women scientists are current-ly seen to be increasingly pro-active intheir fight against the Coronavirus.Among the most prominent of them is anall-women team of four scientists, led byIndia-born Nita Patel, Director forVaccine Development and AntibodyDiscovery at the Novavax Laboratory inthe unassuming neighbourhood ofGaithersburg, Montgomery County ofMaryland, USA. And there are otherwomen scientists around the worldinvolved in the same pursuit.

Patel and her team are working dayand night to isolate the virus and find abreakthrough vaccine against Covid-19

using recombinant nanoparticle technol-ogy. When an ABC7 news reporter askedher what signal it would give young girlsif the vaccine came from the hands ofwomen, Patel said, “Well, that’s encour-aging for young girls to become scientists.You know, I’m a woman (and can say)that’s awesome.” Novavax is aiming at anextremely aggressive timeline, havingreached phase-II of development of thevaccine. If they get the next phase of tri-als right, they could hit the market witha viable vaccine in as little as three months.

However, Patel and her team are notthe only women engaged in the grim bat-tle against Coronavirus. Kathleen Neuzil,director of the University of Maryland’sSchool of Medicine’s Center for VaccineDevelopment, who co-leads a consortiumestablished by the National Institutes ofHealth at Emory University in Atlanta, toquickly tackle new infectious diseases, isalso working in this area.

Another notable STEM researcher isLauren Gardner, a civil engineering pro-fessor at Johns Hopkins University, whohas led a team to build a map based oninformation collected from varioussources in China, the US and elsewhereto track the spread of the virus and locateareas where the virus is taking hold in realtime and where it may attack more infuture. Surely, these path-breakingendeavours by women would not onlyprovide succour by saving thousands oflives against the killer disease but alsoinfluence STEM research and policymak-ing in the long term. Can we still say thatSTEM is not for women?

(The writer is consultant editor at theNational Council of Applied EconomicResearch, New Delhi. The views expressedare personal)

From the perception that few women are found in the fields of science, technology, engineering andmathematics, emerges the paradox that the disbalance is by choice rather than any constraint

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Whose history is it anyway?

NADEEM PARACHA

Post-revisionism has come to question the cherry-picking of history and the ideological lack ofnuance of both orthodox and revisionist historians

HOWEVER, THERE IS LIGHT

BEYOND THETUNNEL AS

WOMENSCIENTISTS ARE

CURRENTLYSEEN TO BE

INCREASINGLYPRO-ACTIVE IN

THEIR FIGHTAGAINST THE

CORONAVIRUS.THE MOST

PROMINENTAMONG THEM ISAN ALL-WOMENTEAM OF FOUR

SCIENTISTS, LEDBY INDIA-BORN

NITA PATEL,DIRECTOR FOR

VACCINEDEVELOPMENTAND ANTIBODY

DISCOVERY AT THENOVAVAX

LABORATORY, INTHE MONTGOMERY

COUNTY OFMARYLAND, USA.

AND THERE AREOTHER WOMEN

SCIENTISTSAROUND THE

WORLD INVOLVEDIN THE SAME

PURSUIT

It is often said by some historians that Pakistan’s founder, MohammadAli Jinnah, did not have a single, cohesive narrative explaining his ideaof Pakistan. This is largely correct. But by citing Jinnah’s inaugural address

to the country’s first Constituent Assembly in August 1947 — in which heenvisioned Pakistan as an inclusive and pluralistic Muslim-majority State— the liberal intelligentsia insists that Jinnah saw his creation as a demo-cratic and progressive entity. However, those who disagree with this oftenproduce documented quotes in which he speaks about constructing an IslamicRepublic. Historiography would define this claim as “orthodox history” andthe previous one as “revisionist history.” The truth is he was a sharp politi-cian who adjusted and readjusted his words according to the audience.So, in a Constituent Assembly that had a majority of “Muslim modernists”and also some prominent non-Muslims, Jinnah explained the new coun-try as a pluralistic entity. On the other hand, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,while addressing an audience of conservative Pakhtuns, he spoke about acountry run by Islamic laws. Then, while talking to the Voice of America,he asserted that Pakistan was not to be a theocracy. Orthodox historiansand revisionists have for long fought over his legacy by using his words.But the following is how a relatively new strand of historiography wouldexplain the discourse between them: Both are correct.

This new strand is called post-revisionism. It first emerged in the 1970sin the US as an “objective” response to revisionist as well as orthodox his-toriographies, which dominated history till the 1950s. It is about history thatis formulated by historians and intelligentsia to justify the creation and thenexistence of a nation-State. The works of Pakistani historian, the late IH Qureshi,are a case in point. His books emphasised the “historical justification” ofthe creation of Pakistan, by suggesting that the national impulse in the Muslimsof South Asia had developed during the 500-year-old Muslim rule in India.He saw it as an evolutionary process that culminated with the creation ofPakistan in 1947. This thesis was adopted by the State and became thecountry’s orthodox history. But from the mid-1980s, Pakistan’s orthodoxhistory began to be countered by some scholars. KK Aziz, Sibte Hassanand Ayesha Jalal launched a severe critique of the country’s orthodox his-tory by deconstructing it and restoring “facts” which they believe had beendistorted/suppressed because they contradicted the origin story of Pakistan.

The works of these historians endeavoured to validate the more liber-al sides of Jinnah. They also demonstrated how he had been reshaped asa quasi-Islamic ideologue by orthodox historians. This was revisionist his-tory taking to task orthodox history. In the last two decades, revisionist his-tory in this context has picked up momentum. For example, in August 2015,the Sindh Government decided to include Jinnah’s August 1947 speechin the curriculum. The speech, which was largely suppressed by the Statesince 1977, also made its way into a 2019 book on Jinnah published bythe Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan Army.

But there are historians who see some inherent problems in the revi-sionist school of thought. This gave birth to what came to be known aspost-revisionism. It largely emerged from the works of American scholarssuch as JL Gaddis and Thomas Peterson. While studying the origins of theCold War between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union, Gaddis and Petersonclaim that both orthodox as well as revisionist historians were heavily invest-ed in defending their respective ideologies in discussions on the Cold War.

For example, while orthodox historians accuse the Soviet Union of start-ing the Cold War “to undermine US democracy and freedom”, revisionistsblame the US for “betraying the Soviet Union after World War-II in a bid tosideline it in the post-war order.” Gaddis and Peterson find this discourseproblematic. They lament that historic evidence was cherry-picked to defendtheir respective ideological dispositions. This made the orthodox and therevisionists miss out the many nuances which greatly contributed to thestart of the Cold War. To Gaddis, these economic and political nuances madethe Cold War inevitable and no one side could be blamed for starting it.Another problem that post-revisionists have with the revisionists is that, eventhough the latter want to demystify and deconstruct the ideological edificeof orthodox history, they do this by replacing it with their own set of ideo-logical preferences. It thus becomes a clash between ideologies in whichimportant historical nuances get ignored. Critics of revisionism have alsodemonstrated that since revisionism is more about critiquing than docu-menting history, it has given birth to “historical negationism” or “denial-ism”, which piggybanks on revisionist ideas to claim that horrific episodesof genocide, such as the Holocaust, never happened. Also, since revision-ists, just as orthodox historians, are largely driven by political ideologies,there is always the danger that, in the event of their preferred account ofhistory not being accepted, they may end up substantiating the history thatthey set out to counter. For example, some revisionists want Pakistani lib-erals to let go of Jinnah’s image as a progressive leader, and accept thatthe creation of Pakistan as a Muslim-majority country was a mistake. Thus,they inadvertently end up substantiating the image of Jinnah constructedby their orthodox opponents. This is when revisionism ends up eating itsown tail. (Courtesy: Dawn)

A masterstroke gone horribly wrongThe then MD and CEO of Yes Bank, Rana Kapoor, thought that he had found his niche by lending to well-known companies who were finding it

difficult to get finances from existing lenders. What looked like a good business plan at the time turned out to be the bank’s nemesis

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

ANUPMA MEHTA

ABHISHEK RAJA

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Rourkela SteelPlant registersrecord production BHUBANESWAR: The ourkelaSteel Plant (RSP) registeredthe highest Februaryproduction of hot metalfrom two of its blast furnaces,officials said on Sunday.The RSP produced 2,29,704tonnes of hot metal from BlastFurnace-5 and 82,300 tonnesfrom Blast Furnace-1, whichare the best Februaryproductions of the respectivefurnaces since inception, itsaid in a statement. The RSPalso achieved the highestFebruary production of crudesteel and saleable steel. Itproduced 3,06,510 tonnes ofcrude steel and 2,81,501tonnes of saleable steel.The steel plant also registeredthe highest Februaryproduction of HR coil at1,52,917 tonnes.

Saudi, Gulf sharesslump after OPECdeal failsDUBAI: Saudi's stockexchange fell 6.5 per cent andother Gulf markets tumbled tomulti-year lows at the start oftrading Sunday after OPECand its allies failed to clinch adeal over oil production cuts.Shares in oil giant SaudiAramco dropped below theirIPO price for their first time.The Dubai Financial Marketdived 8.5 per cent and theKuwait and Abu Dhabi markets dropped more than 7.0 per cent.

Mumbai's BhendiBazaar takes leapinto future MUMBAI: After many failedattempts over the past decade,Bhendi Bazaar, one of the mostunderdeveloped and busiestbusiness-cum-residentialdistricts of the city, is taking abig leap into the future inwhat's said to be the nation'slargest cluster redevelopmentproject. The 125-year-oldneighbourhood spanning 16.5-acres, not very far from theiconic CST, is already home totwo newly-developed towers of36 and 41-floors which areopening a new world ofmodern living for the familiesthere. Around 610 of the over3,200 families and 128 of theover 1,250 businesses havemoved in to the new buildings— all for free. The families,which were living in 80-ftdilapidated homes, are movinginto 350 sq ft modernapartments now.This is the country's largestand one of the most ambitiouscluster redevelopmentprogrammes till date. It isbeing fully funded by theSaifee Burhani UpliftmentTrust, established by the lateSyedna MohammedBurhanuddin, the formerspiritual head of the BohriMuslim community who arethe vast majority of theresidents and tenants of the area.

Six of top-10 firms loseRs 95,432 cr in m-capPNS n NEW DELHI

Six of the 10 most valueddomestic companies suffereda combined erosion of Rs95,432.26 crore in market val-uation last week, draggeddown by Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL) and HDFCBank amid a bearish trend inthe broader market. Duringthe last week, the BSE Sensexplunged 720.67 points or 1.88per cent. On Friday, the Sensexplummeted 894 points amidthe Yes Bank crisis and coro-navirus outbreak which has stoked fears of a globalrecession.

The market capitalisation(m-cap) of RIL plummeted Rs37,144 crore to Rs 8,05,118.67crore, taking the biggest hitamong the top-10 firms for theweek ended Friday.

HDFC Bank's valuationdropped Rs 23,435 crore to Rs6,22,109.94 crore and that ofBajaj Finance tumbled Rs

14,229.1 crore to Rs2,54,309.90 crore. The marketcap of HDFC tanked Rs11,625.3 crore to Rs3,65,214.59 crore and that ofICICI Bank fell Rs 6,325.67crore to reach Rs 3,14,705.23crore. Bharti Airtel also suf-fered an erosion of Rs 2,673.22crore from its m-cap to stand

at Rs 2,83,225.26 crore. Incontrast, Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) made the max-imum gain as its m-capclimbed Rs 43,884.14 crore toRs 7,94,717.56 crore.

Infosys added Rs 3,364.34crore to its valuation to reachRs 3,14,821.60 crore. The m-cap of Hindustan Unilever

Limited (HUL) rose by Rs 2,534.8 crore to Rs 4,73,359.77 crore.

Likewise, Kotak MahindraBank gained Rs 2,447.7 croreto Rs 3,12,168.86 crore.

In the ranking of the 10most valued firms, RILretained its top spot, followedby TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL,HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank,Kotak Mahindra Bank, Airteland Bajaj Finance.

The marketcapitalisation (m-cap) of RILplummeted Rs 37,144 cr to Rs 8,05,118.67 cr,taking the biggesthit among the top-10firms for the weekended Friday

l Reliance Industries takes biggest hit

‘Markets to remain under pressure amid Yes Bank crisis’PNS n NEW DELHI

Markets are likely to remainunder pressure in the holiday-shortened week ahead withinvestors tracking the Yes Bankcrisis and the coronavirus out-break which have cast a shadowover trading sentiment, analysts said.

Equity markets would remainclosed on Tuesday for 'Holi'.

Several key macroeconomicdata announcements are alsoscheduled during the week.Industrial production and retailinflation rate will be released onThursday and WPI inflation onFriday.

"Given the volatility and fear-ful psychology, market partici-pants are likely to drift away andreduce their exposure to equities

till clarity emerges on financialdistress (Yes Bank and Covid-19)," Jimeet Modi, Founder &CEO, SAMCO Securities &StockNote said.

Markets are expected toremain low with subdued inter-est and little activity from active

investors, he added."Indian equity market contin-

ued its sharp slide for the secondconsecutive week on fears of fastspreading coronavirus casesoutside China and Yes Bank cri-sis and its repercussions on thefinancial system. Till we see a

semblance of normalcy return-ing, markets are likely to remainunder pressure and highlyvolatile. Fluctuations in FII equi-ty flows can also add to volatil-ity," said Siddhartha Khemka,Head - Retail Research, MotilalOswal Financial Services.

Religare Broking, VP -Research, Ajit Mishra said, "Wecontinue to maintain our cau-tious view on Indian marketsand expect volatility to remainhigh in the near term. The

updates on spread of coron-avirus cases would be the singlebiggest factor dictating globalmarkets going forward. On thedomestic front, updates on res-olution plan for Yes Bank alongwith spread of coronavirus caseswould be actively tracked bytraders and investors."

During the last week, Sensexplunged 720.67 points or 1.88per cent. The Sensex had plum-meted 894 points on Friday asregulatory curbs on Yes Bank

triggered broad-based selling.Yes Bank tanked over 55 per

cent on Friday after the RBIplaced the lender under a mora-torium, capping deposit with-drawals at Rs 50,000 per accountfor a month and superseding itsboard. Meanwhile, theEnforcement Directorate onSunday arrested Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor undermoney laundering charges.

"Another bank bites the dust.This time its Yes Bank - one ofthe large private sector banks.RBI has stepped in and leadingstate-owned institutions arepatching up a bailout plan forthe bank and more important-ly, safeguard the interest ofdepositors. However, the alreadyweak sentiments have beendented further.

Several key macroeconomic dataannouncements are also scheduled during the week. Industrial production and retailinflation rate will be released on Thursday and WPI inflation on Friday

PNS n NEW DELHI

Snapping their six-month buy-ing streak, FPIs pulled out a netRs 13,157 crore from the Indiancapital markets in the first fivetrading sessions of March as thecoronavirus outbreak spookedinvestor sentiment.

According to depositoriesdata, foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) withdrew a net Rs8,997.46 crore from equitiesand Rs 4,159.66 crore from thedebt segment during March 2-6, taking the total net outflowto Rs 13,157.12 crore.

Prior to this, FPIs were netbuyers in the Indian capitalmarkets for six consecutivemonths since September 2019.

"The spread of coronavirus inthe US is a major driving fac-tor and India is witnessing aspillover effect of what is hap-pening in the global markets.There has been a consistentdrain of money from Indianequities as well as the debtwhere FPIs are fleeing theIndian markets amidst fear ofan extended slowdown," saidHarsh Jain, co-founder andCOO, Groww. The US Fedbrought in an emergency ratecut of 50 bps, which shows thatthe US government is expect-

ing a slowdown, he noted. Asper Jain, the current situation inIndia, seen along with the YesBank crisis, is not very encour-aging.

"In the next 3-4 weeks, thecoronavirus behaviour in thewestern world will dictate theinvestment behaviour by FPIsin India," Jain said.

Echoing the views, NiraliShah, senior research analyst atSamco Securities, said "The

sell-off is certainly the effect ofuncertainty caused by ripplingeffect of coronavirus (COVID-19) in major economies."

Going forward, dependingon how the US market reacts tocoronavirus and slowdownfears, FPIs will react as the USeconomy will be the cue forthese investors for either bring-ing in fresh investments orwithdrawing from India, Shahadded.

FPIs turn net sellers, pull outRs 13,157 cr in March so far

According to depositories data, foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) withdrew a net Rs 8,997.46 crfrom equities and Rs 4,159.66 cr from the debtsegment during March 2-6, taking the total net outflow to Rs 13,157.12 cr

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government is set to morethan double the manpower atthe Serious Fraud InvestigationOffice (SFIO) to nearly 350 asit continues efforts to curbcorporate wrongdoings.

Corporate Affairs SecretaryInjeti Srinivas said the processwas on to further profession-alise and streamline the SFIO.

"Corporate frauds are verycomplex. The whole challengeis in getting quality peoplewith domain expertise (for theSFIO). "The strength also has tobe increased significantly. Thereis a proposal to increase itfrom 133 to close to 350,"Srinivas said in an interview.The SFIO, which comes underthe corporate affairs ministry,investigates white-collar crimesand is currently probing highprofile cases like the IL&FS fias-co. According to Srinivas, theministry is in the process ofrestructuring the agency, espe-cially considering the numberof pending cases as well as like-ly new cases coming to theSFIO.

"The pendency with SFIOtoday is close to 90 and 20 to 30cases get added each year," he

said. On the proposed restruc-turing and increasing the man-power, Srinivas said it would bedone in a calibrated manner.

"There will be cadre posts atthe entry level and will havesome promotion posts but atthe middle and senior levels, alot of (people on) deputationshave to come.

"People on deputations canstay for seven years and thereis no major issue of continuity,"he noted. The ministry has alsoset up a 12-member high-levelpanel to prepare an investiga-tion manual for the SFIO.

Chaired by Srinivas, thecommittee has SFIO Director

Amardeep Singh Bhatia, anofficial from the EnforcementDirectorate and advocates,among others as members.

"The committee shall devisean all encompassing manual forcarrying out effective investiga-tions in tune with provisions ofrelevant Acts...," as per anorder issued by the ministry onFriday. Apart from preparingthe manual to plug possibleloopholes that may hamperSFIO's investigation, the com-mittee would specify theapplicability of the Code ofCriminal Procedure and theCode of Civil Procedure on the agency.

Govt to restructure SFIO;increase manpower to 350

ArcelorMittal fearsCovid-19 will hitsales, profitabilityPNS n KOLKATA

Hero Enterprise chairmanSunil Kant Munjal has laudedthe regulatory framework ofthe country saying it is gettingbetter and regulators are nowstepping in promptly to han-dle financial crisis.

India is currently experienc-ing the "pain of transition",Munjal said at the launch ofhis book "The Making ofHero". "A lot of questions onIBC was raised but the way itis functioning... in the next 2-3 years, it will be a smoothfunctioning system," Munjalsaid at the programme onSaturday.

Stakeholders had raisedconcerns as cases dragged onfor months and years in theNCLT and NCLAT and someof the most important caseshave eventually settled in theSupreme Court.

On Goods and ServicesTax, Munjal said although theinitial concept of GST wassimple, it has now becomecomplex owing to "a lot ofpolitical compromises".

Nevertheless, he expectsthat complications around thelatest tax structure would beaddressed and GST will even-tually evolve into a simplerform.

Asked about the RBI's inter-vention in Yes Bank and thepossibility of SBI picking up a49 per cent stake in it, Munjalsaid, "It sends a very mixedsignal. On one hand, it provesthat the regulatory bodies areawake, On the other, it scareda lot of peo-ple whoare notable toa c c e s st h e i rdeposits.

Munjal positive onregulatory bodies

PNS n NEW DELHI

Amid deepening coronaviruscrisis across the world, globalsteel giant ArcelorMittal hasexpressed apprehensions ofits sales and profitability get-ting impacted in 2020 in casethe virus spreads widelythrough Europe, particularlyin Italy.

T h eLuxembourg-headquarteredcompany is theworld's largeststeel producerwith steel-making operationsin 18 countries on four conti-nents, including 46 integratedand mini-mill steel-makingfacilities. It recently complet-ed acquisition of debt-riddenEssar Steel in India for aboutRs 42,000 crore and hasannounced plans to ramp upits finished steel producingcapacity in India to 8.5 milliontonnes per annum by the endof 2024.

"The recent increase in casesoutside China is worrying and

increases the risk of a globalpandemic and a much largernegative impact on globalGDP. The Company is moni-toring the situation closelyand in particular in Italy, asshould the virus spread morewidely through Europe thiswill likely have a materialimpact on the Company's sales

and profitabilityin 2020," the steelbehemoth said inits latest annualreport.

In Italy, theepicentre of

Europe's outbreak, death tollhas climbed to more than230, and its confirmed cases to5,800, third behind SouthKorea and China, where thevirus was first detected inDecember.

The company said the epi-demic may affectArcelorMittal's operations incertain regions and citedexamples of how its projectswere impacted in Liberia in2014 and 2015 during theEbola virus disease epidemic.

A lot of questions on IBC was raisedbut the way it is functioning... inthe next 2-3 years, it will be a

smooth functioning system— SUNIL KANT MUNJAL

Hero Enterprise chairman

PNS n NEW DELHI

Rigid plastics packaging majorManjushree Technopack Ltd(MTL) expects acquisitionsto play a significant role as itseeks to triple revenue andprofit in the next four years,according to a top companyofficial.

The company, which endedlast fiscal with revenue of overRs 1,100 crore and EBIDTA ofRs 220 crore, expects to have"a couple of more acquisitionsin the next one year" adding tothe takeover of an Amritsar-based firm last quarter.

"We will triple revenue andEBIDTA in the next four years.Almost Rs 1,000 crore willcome come through inorgan-

ic growth," MTL CEO SanjayKapote said. He further said,"We have acquired a companylast quarter. We will be doingcouple of more (acquisitions)in next one year....still the tar-get identification and theprocess is on."

Kapote, however, declinedto comment on how big theseacquisitions could be as theprocess is ongoing. He also didnot disclose the deal size ofMTL's acquisition of NationalPlastics in Amritsar, citing anon-disclosure agreement.

Manjushree Technopack eyesacquisitions, tripling revenue

5 ROAD PROJECTS FACING RS 10,500-CR DEBT

IL&FS seeks extension of bid validityPNS n NEW DELHI

Being steered by a govern-ment-appointed and eminentbanker Uday Kotak-led boardon its path to recovery, crisis-hit IL&FS has sought extensionof bid validity for five road pro-jects that are faced with debtstotalling over Rs 10,000 crore.

Infrastructure Leasing andFinancial Services (IL&FS) hadreceived time-bound bindingbids for these five road projects,but the validity of those bidsexpired on February 29.

These five projects areChenani Nashri Tunnel project(CNTL), Pune Sholapur RoadDevelopment (PSRDCL),Jorbat Shillong ExpresswayLimited (JSEL), HazaribaghRanchi Expressway (HREL)

and Jharkhand InfrastructureImplementation Company(JIICL). The five projects havereceived bids totalling Rs 7,489crore, as against an aggregatedebt of Rs 10,500 crore, as peran affidavit filed by the com-pany before the NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT).

When contacted, an IL&FS

spokesperson said, "We areworking with the bidders to getan extension of the bids andwill follow the laid-out processfor concluding the transac-tion on receipt of the exten-sion." Out of the five projects,the company recently gotapproval from lenders for threeprojects — PSRDCL, JSEL andCNTL — for bids totalling

approximately Rs 6,250 crore.However, an expired valid-

ity may pose challenges in saleof these assets in the absenceof an extension, even if lendershave approved the bids.

After a huge crisis came tolight due to outstanding debt ofover Rs 90,000 crore at IL&FS,the government in October2018 had seized control of thedebt-trapped company andsuperseded its board byappointing a new one, led byKotak as its chairman.

The new board, as part ofthe overall resolution processfor the IL&FS Group, has solda number of assets to clear duesand debt, while the process isunderway for resolution ofseveral other debt-laden projects.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Indian women are actively sav-ing and taking charge of theirmoney, with a whopping 68 percent either managingtheir own finances orhaving an equalsay in their fam-ilies' financiald e c i s i o n s ,according to asurvey.

Only lessthan 10 per centwomen leave thefinancial decisionsto male members of thefamily, said the survey byScripbox, a provider of onlinefinancial services.

Majority of the women sur-

veyed were disciplined withmonthly savings but only 30per cent invested their moneyin inflation-beating financialinstrument — mutual funds.

Scripbox undertook thissurvey in February

2020 with over 600women respon-dents across India.Of these, nearly70 per cent weremillennials, 24 percent were GenX,

while the remain-ing were in the over-

50 years age bracket.Interestingly, women

emerged as savvy investorstoo, challenging the commonmisconception of 'women save,men invest', it said.

‘Women clear about savings;taking charge of their money’

enkatramanaChary was bornin VishwaBrahmin casteand sculpting hasbeen their occu-

pation for ages. This led tohim developing these skillsin his childhood itself. Hewas always interested insculptures and has won over70 awards for his works. Healso received two interna-tional awards, Kalaratnaaward and Visista Kalaratna.

Telangana Thalli is one ofhis best sculptures for whichhe received an award fromChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao alsogiven a cash compliment ofRs 1,16,000 on August 15,2015 in Golconda Fort.

Sculpting requires con-centration, deep observa-tion, love and passion.Chary used to help hisfather and learned sculptureon his own by observing hisfather work. He always par-ticipated in school competi-tions by designing sculp-tures with his creativity andwon prizes.

He began his journey withclay by making idols ofgods.

Elaborating on his jour-ney, Chary says, “Paintingand sculptures are not verydifferent art forms, but apainting is a two-dimen-sional thing, whereas sculp-tures are three-dimensional.This is something that helpseven blind people decipher asculpture with touch andtexture and that is its great-ness,”

Chary however has notstuck to only sculpting andis in fact a singer, actor,director, writer and yogateacher. He possesses a mas-ters degree in fine arts(MFA) from JNAFAU and

was the first student to get adistinction in BFA(Bachelors in Fine Arts).Chary has so far designed500 sculptures.

“While designing a sculp-ture one should not haveanything in their mind apartfrom concentration as asculptor’s mood will reflectin his work. You can suc-cessfully complete yourwork only if you begin withpeace. You can give anyamong the nine emotions(navarasalu) to the sculp-ture,” he described.

Speaking about his expe-rience in designingTelangana Thalli, he saidthat he conceived the ideaon the lines of Telugu Thalli.“I designed a sculpture andshowed it to KChandrasekhar Rao sir.However he wasn’timpressed and said it lackeddevotional appeal likeBharath Maata. He motivat-ed me to design the embodi-ment of a traditional womanbelonging to Telangana.Hence, I redesigned themodel with a crown on herhead and Batukamma andmaize corn in her left andright hand respectively,” headded.

“It took many years todesign the sculpture ofTelangana Thalli. Later, Itook the help of 70 membersincluding Tamilians,” hesaid.

He is an academic assis-tant contract lecturer atTelugu academy where heteaches practicals includingportraits and life studies.

“In spite of being talent-ed and having experience,my husband does not havea proper income as his jobis temporary and lasts onlyfor one academic year. Hehas to apply as a fresher

every academic year andearns only Rs 15000 permonth,” his wife Sai Sudhaconcluded.

Few amongthose who were

witness toIndia's freedom

struggle, thefight against

Razakars’atrocities, and the

movement for aformation of a

separate Telanganastate are alive today.Warangal-based 100-

year-old JalagamRadhamma is onesuch person, finds

V SATEESHREDDY

orn in 1919 atVenkatramapuramof Ananthagiri man-dal in Suryapet dis-trict, JalagamRadhamma has wit-

nessed many riots and move-ments in her life, startingfrom the fight for India’sIndependence.

During her heyday, shehad also taken part inprotests against Razakars’atrocities and the freedomof the Telangana regionfrom Nizams.

Speaking to ThePioneer, Radhamma says,“I was born in Suryapetand moved to Medipallivillage in Warangal aftermarriage. We used tolisten to the newsabout ourIndependence move-ment and believedthat even our regionmust be free of theNizam’s rule afterIndependence. Butthat was not thecase as our regionwas like a separatecountry duringtheir rule. The

Razakars’

appointed by theNizams used tokill people whowere against thelatter. They evenkilled womenand looted goldfrom vil-lages.”

Talkingabout her par-ticipation in thefight againstRazakars’, she adds,“I was in second gradeat that time and it wascalled Pedda Bala Shiksha.During those days, we wereonly taught Urdu, but oneMuslim teacher helped me learnTelugu secretly by drawing onthe sand. To stay safe fromRazakars’, the women used tostay in groups. We used to carrychilli powder in our clothes to beprepared for any unfortunateincidents.”

While it was mostly the menwho were out on the battlefield,the women played a more impor-tant, crucial role — keepingthem alive. Explaining how theyused to help men who werefighting against the Nizams byliving in the forests, she shares,“Most of the men used to stay inthe forests. Our duty was to givethem food secretly. We would

prepare local, Telangana disheslike Sakinalu which would

last for at least a week.We would distribute

the food by going tothe forests as daily

wage labourersand hide the

food amongstour worktools.”

Evenafter Indiagot free-dom fromBritishRule,

Telanganawas stillruled by the Nizamsas a separate country.Speaking about thefight to freedom forTelangana, she said,“We heard that Indiagot Independence onAugust 15, 1947 andfelt happy as we wouldalso be merged with thecountry. But unfortu-nately that wasn’t thecase and the Razakars’atrocities increased.Nehru and Patel helpedour region be free fromthe shackles of theNizam using policeaction and we were final-ly free on September 17,1948.”

Radhamma’s childrenare all well-settled anddespite her age,Radhamma takes care ofherself without asking forhelp. Asked about hersecret to remaining fit for a 100years, she said, “We used to eat

Jonna rice, Ghatkaand

other prod-ucts which weren’t adulterated.More importantly, there was notension to earn money as weused to exchange products, alsocalled Vastu Marpidi, for a living.

During those times, weused to

spend Rs 10 for anacre for farming. Now, not manypeople are into agriculture.”

She however laments the useof plastic flowers duringBathukamma these days andsaid, “We used to playBathukamma using natural flow-ers and at three different places.The government must set-up

nurseries for theseflow-

ers.”She also finds it sad that

nuclear families seem tohave become the normthese days. “It is very sadto see joint families van-

ishing. At our time, we used todo all things in unity. We used todiscuss the good and the badtogether.”

On a concluding note,Radhamma said that theTelangana Chief Minister hasintroduced various welfareschemes for the wellness of thestate and added that it would beappreciable if the governmentfelicitated people who fought

against the Nizams.

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

MondayMarch 9, 2020

‘Men fought,

but WOMENkept them alive'

B

Most of the men

used to stay in

the forests. Our

duty was to give

them food secretly. We

would prepare local,

Telangana dishes like

sakinalu which would last

for at least a week. We

would distribute the food by

going to the forests as daily

wage labourers and hide

the food amongst our worktools

JALAGAM RADHAMMA

Sculpting his way to fameSculpting is a difficult job and is definitely not

everyone's cup of tea. The thought process thatgoes into it makes it an art that requires finer

sensibilities for proper appreciation. Hard work andexperience aside, a sculptor needs patience and

forethought to visualise how he wants the endproduct to look like. Speaking to M SHREYA RAJ,

Byroju Venkatramana Chary, the sculptor ofTelangana Thalli, elaborates his journey of

becoming a sculptor

V

While designing a sculptureone should not have

anything in their mind apartfrom concentration as a

sculptor’s mood will reflectin his work. You can

successfully complete yourwork only if you begin with

peace. You can give anyamong the nine emotions

(navarasalu) to thesculpture

VENKATRAMANA CHARYSCULPTOR

10

Hyderabad Monday March 9, 2020

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

Phot

os bb

ySV

Char

y

EELLEECCTTRROONNIICC

NIGHT DJ duo Arjun Nair

and Nishanth akaAnswer

mesmerised theaudience by performingvarious music beats atFarzi Cafe in the city.Music lovers andsocialites attended inlarge numbers and hada great evening oversoulful music anddelicious food.

CITY GUIDE

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed, send your details alongwith a poster and contact number to pioneer.features@gmail.com

EVENTS

l Hyderabad Readers and Writers Group ishosting a book reading session on March 21 atPhoenix Arena from 6 pm.

BOOK READING

l Lamakaan, Banjara Hills is conducting a painting workshop on its premises on March 22from 11:30 am.

PAINTING WORKSHOP

l Savera, a music concert will be held onMarch 15 at Lamakaan from 10.30 am.

l Madhubani painting exhibition will be held on March 14 at Phoenix Arena from 2 pmonwards.

MADHUBANI PAINTING

PUPPETRY DAY

COMEDY NIGHTSl Stand-up comedian Vivek Muralidharan ishosting his new stand-up show on March 22 atPhoenix Arena from 5 pm.

MUSIC CONCERT

l Nori Art and Puppetry Centre is conducting WorldPuppetry Day Celebrations on March 21 at Lamakaanfrom 6.30 pm.

what’s brewing?

PART

Y

l Rashi

l Snigdha

l Akanksha and Stuti

l Advika

l Sharon l Sneha

l S

hrad

dha

Das

l E

esha

Reb

ba

l Moosa Ali and Shazebl Afreen and Mrunmayee

SMART LAUNCHActresses Eesha Rebba

and Shraddha Dasunveiled Samsung’s

new smartphones, includingS20 and S20+, inHyderabad. Models andsocialites attended the launchevent and enquired featuresof the new models withorganisers.

irector Sailesh Kolanucouldn’t have askedfor more. His maidenfilm Hit struck gold atthe box-office and isstill drawing decent

footfalls as it entered the secondweek. Having reportedbreakeven even in many territo-ries, the film’s distributors arelooking at making decent prof-its. The director is now gearingup for the second part. He willbe leaving to Sydney — wherehe honed his writing and direc-tion skills — towards themonth-end to pen the screen-play of the second part. “I’d liketo dissociate from everyonewhen I write. I will invest six-seven weeks on the script andthen later come back toHyderabad and dive into pre-production. I’m looking at onOctober start for the secondpart but that depends onVishwak Sen’s dates as well ashe is signed up for a couple ofprojects,” the director tells usexclusively over the phone.

Hit told the story of a copVikram Rudraraju(Vishwak) who is investi-

gating a couple of missingcases. With the first part’s

success, is he going to set Hit 2on a grander canvas? “I’veestablished the world ofHomicide Intervention Team(Hit) already, so I don’t see apoint in making the canvasbigger for the second part. Ibelieve many franchises havefailed because they tried toincrease the canvas for no rea-son. I don’t want to make thesame mistake again. It will besame world but the conflictswill be strongerand the prob-lems bigger. Thecharacters fromthe first partwill extend intothe second,while new char-acters will beadded,” he rea-sons.

While thefilm’s climaxhad been criti-cised, withmany criticsindicating that itwas fairly simple‘one’ after anengrossingwatch till then,Sailesh opines

that he felt it was appropriateand given a chance he wouldstick to the same climax again.

Sailesh is also happy that hisproducers Nani and PrashantiTipirneni made money out ofthe project. “Despite being anout-of-the-box film, it madesome good money and Nanianna is happy. The success isimportant for people like him

who want to introduce newtalent through his Wall PosterCinema,” he informs, furtherrevealing that his dad SeshagiriRao, who works for Dil Raju’sSri Venkateswara Creations, ischuffed to bits with the box-office result. “At the same timehe is a practical man. He cau-tioned me not to take the suc-cess to my head.” — NG

alayalam starDulquerSalmaan-star-rer KanuluKanulanuDochayante is

registeringimpressive

numbers attheTelugubox-

officesomuchso thatclose to

40screens

have been added across thetwo Telugu states over theweekend. With the lastFriday releases — likePalasa, O Pitta Katha andCollege Kumar — failing todraw audience in droves tothe cinema halls, the buzzaround Dulquer’s film,which opened to positivereviews on February 28,shot through the roof, lead-ing to a surge in demand.

“Based on demand fromexhibitors and distributors,we have added these manyscreens from Saturday. Theincreasing positive publicreaction has extended well

into the second weekas well strongly,” pro-ducer Kamalakar Reddyof KFC Entertainmentssaid.

An engaging tale of conartists in love, the film,directed by DesinghPeriyasamy, is dubbed fromTamil version KannumKannum Kollaiyadithaal. Atthe success meet of the filmin Hyderabad recently,Dulquer appealed to view-ers to catch the film in the-atres than on OTT plat-forms, saying that the filmdeserves a theatrical experi-ence.

fter dabbling inwriting dialoguesfor Sharwanand’snext with ShreeKarthik and act-ing for a major

part of last year, includinghis debut as a lead withMeeku Maathrame Cheptha,filmmaker Tharun Bhascker

has now set his sights onhosting TV shows. Thedirector-turned-actor hastaken up the job of inter-viewing celebrities for a newshow that will be aired on apopular general entertain-ment channel. Titled NeekuMaathrame Cheptha, it willgo on air every Saturday

from March 14.Tharun, who has

recently finisheddirecting a politi-cal thriller forNetflix, is alsopenning thescreenplay of hisnext with VictoryVenkatesh.

Hyderabad Monday March 9, 2020

A

11

tollywood

He will be seen as Varun's father in the filmand their bond is something to watch outfor on screen, finds NAGARAJ GOUD

Uppi returnsto Tollywood

arun Tej’s nextwith debutantKiranKorrapatialready boastsof an enviable

supporting cast compris-ing of Suniel Shetty,Jagapathi Babu, Nadiyaand Naveen Chandra.And if our sources areanything to go by, thenKannada star Upendra isthe latest big name tohave boarded the project,a boxing drama. Theuntitled film will markUppi’s — as he is fondly

called by his legion offans in Karnataka —return to the Teluguindustry after a key sup-porting turn in TrivikramSrinivas’ S/o Satyamurthy(2015).

A highly-placedsource close to thedevelopment told usexclusively, “As filmmak-ers would’ve known bynow, Uppi, a director aswell, is tough to impress.But Kiran pitched him arole that he couldn’t getoff his mind even afterthe narration. The actorwas wary whether toaccept it or not as hisschedule was busy, butfinally gave in. He willbe seen as Varun’s fatherin the film and theirbond is something towatch out for on screen.They go through anemotional upheaval asthe film unravels sceneby scene and will keepthe audience teary-eyed

and rooting forthem with theirchemistry.”

The sourcefurther adds theproject will beVarun’s biggestbudgeted film tilldate and theteam is happythat a casting oftheir choice hasfallen in place.

The film wentto floors inVisakhapatnam lastmonth and post thisongoing schedule,the unit will shift toHyderabad wherethey will shoot forthree weeks. NationalCapital region (NewDelhi) will host thefinal schedule. A jointproduction venturebetween SidhuMudda and AlluVenkatesh, the filmwill release on July30 this year.

V

Tharun Bhascker tohost a show now

he second schedule of

Puri Jagannadh’s next

(tentatively titledLiger) with VijayDeverakonda has been

wrapped up in

Mumbai over the weekend. Until

now, the director has shot for 40

days, filming scenes involving

Deverakonda, Ramya Krishna,

Ananya Pandey, Ronit Roy and

Ali besides a couple of action

blocks on the lead star. We’ve fur-ther learnt that

the unit hasreturned toHyderabadonSaturdayand will bespendingthe next

one week tocheck thefootage shot

so farbesides

celebrating Holi today.“The next schedule of a month

will begin in Mumbai on April

15th. After this, the unit will

leave abroad for the final sched-

ule, which will call it a wrap for

talkie portions. The filming of

songs — mostly in Hyderabad-

will follow later,” said a source

close to the unit.Being made in Telugu and

Hindi simultaneously, the film,

an emotional action-drama, is a

joint production venture between

Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta,

Puri Jagannadh and Charmee

Kaur. Kecha, who was received

good reviews for his stunts in

Puri’s Iddarammayilatho back

then, is the film’s action-choreog-

rapher. The film involves

heavy-duty action asDeverakonda will beseen as a martialarts exponent init.

T

M

Don't see a point in making thecanvas bigger for Hit 2: SaileshD

I’ve established the world ofHomicide Intervention Team (Hit)already, so I don’t see a point inmaking the canvas bigger for thesecond part. I believe manyfranchises have failed becausethey tried to increase the canvasfor no reason. I don’t want tomake the same mistake again.

SAILESH KOLANU

THE SOURCEFURTHER ADDSTHE PROJECT WILLBE VARUN’SBIGGESTBUDGETED FILMTILL DATE

Puri and Vijay’s

month-long schedule

in Mumbai

AAFFTTEERR BBRREEAAKK......

Kanulu KanulanuDochayantegets additionalscreens

sport 12HYDERABAD | MONDAY | MARCH 9, 2020

PTI n MELBOURNE

India saved their worst for the last as abrutal Australian side outclassed themby 85 runs for an unprecedented fifth

T20 World Cup triumph in a final thatpromised much but delivered very littlehere Sunday.

Batting first after the coin landed inMeg Lanning's favour, Australia came outin scintillating fashion with their openersAlyssa Healy (75 off 39 balls) and BethMooney (78 off 54 balls) laying the foun-dation with a 115-run partnership in dou-ble quick time.

Stirred up by the grand occasion, theironslaught fired Australia to a formidable184 for four in the stipulated 20 overs.

Overwhelmed by the occasion, Indiacrumbled to 99 all out in front of a turnoutof 86174 at the iconic Melbourne CricketGround, a record in women's cricket his-tory.

What worked in the home team'sfavour was that their openers easily neu-tralised the threat posed by the in-formspinner Poonam Yadav (1/30 in 4 overs)with percentage game while taking thelikes of medium-pacer Shikha Pandey andDeepti Sharma to the cleaners.

On the day, Pandey was smashed for52 runs in her four overs.

Half the battle was won there for theformidable Australians, who, in starkcontrast to the India, saved their best forthe last.

The manner and magnitude of thedefeat, including a few sub plots, were rem-iniscent of the 2003 men's World Cup finalwhen Ricky Ponting's Australia thrashedSourav Ganguly's India in an anti-climac-tic title clash.

Like Zaheer Khan in his opening overat the Wanderers against Adam Gilchristand Matthew Hayden, Deepti Sharma wasall nerves when up against Mooney andHealy, who blasted massive sixes as thebeaming husband Mitchell Starc watchedfrom the stands.

The match was as good as over whenIndia were 18/3 in the fourth over, whichbecame four for 4/30 when skipperHarmanpreet Kaur departed and 58/5when Veda Krishnamurthy was taking thelong walk back.

From India's point of view, the final

outing was a far cry from their campaignopener when the same team humbled thehosts.

“The first game was very good, it gave

us a lot of confidence. We spent a lot oftime together, unfortunate for us not to wintoday,” Harmanpreet said after the game.

“Sometimes, we are not able to give our

best.”Triumphant captain Lanning said,

“To put this kind of performance on thebiggest day is outstanding and somethingthat I'm really proud of.”

Earlier, Mooney and Healy rode ondropped chances to smash blistering fiftiesand power Australia to a challenging 184for four.

Mooney top-scored for Australia butit was Healy, who took to the attack afterbeing dropped in the fifth ball of theinnings by Shafali Verma off DeeptiSharma.

Healy’s 39-balls innings was laced withseven fours and five hits over the fence.

Healy and Mooney shared 115 runs in11.5 overs for the opening wicket to giveAustralia a flying start after opting to batfirst.

Just like Healy, Mooney too cashed inon a dropped chance — caught andbowled opportunity by Rajeshwari

Gayakwad in the fourth over — to pun-ish India by reaching her fifty in 41 balls.

Mooney struck 10 boundaries in her54-ball unconquered knock.

Despite losing to India in the tourna-ment opener, defending champions andfour-time winners, Australia entered thefinal as favourites because of their bigmatch temperament and experience.

And the Meg Lanning-led side provedtheir billing as Healy tore apart the hap-less Indian attack with her power-hittingfrom ball one.

Healy’s entertaining knock finallycame to an end in 12th over when she washoled out at the long-on boundary by VedaKrishnamurthy off left-arm spinner RadhaYadav.

After Healy’s dismissal, Mooney tookcharge and added 39 runs with skipper

Lanning before Deepti’s double strike inthe 17th over pulled things back for Indiato some extent.

While Lanning (6) was caught byShikha Pandey in the second ball, AshleighGardner was stumped by Taniya Bhatiathree balls later.

Rachael Haynes (4) too failed to deliv-er as she played on a Poonam Yadav deliv-ery in the 19th over.

But Mooney took up the responsibil-ity and remained unbeaten in the compa-ny of Nicola Carey (5 not out) to takeAustralia close to the 190-run mark.

The Indian slow bowlers — Deepti(2/38), Radha Yadav (1/34) and PoonamYadav (1/30) did well to restrict Australiaunder 200, which looked easily achievablewhen Mooney and Healy were goinggreat guns.

PTI n MELBOURNE

Meg Lanning on Sunday hailedher team after captaining

Australia to their fifth ICC Women'sT20 World Cup title here.

The skipper has been at thehelm for many an Australian suc-cess but took that to a new level atthe MCG with an 85-run victoryover India for their first crown onhome soil.

But it was far from an easyjourney to the top for Lanning,with a group-stage victory overNew Zealand and the semi-finalsuccess against South Africa amongher most stressful cricket moments.

“This tournament was alwaysgoing to be massive, we had our upsand downs throughout and every-

thing was thrown at us. To be ableto come through and have the com-plete performance on the biggeststage, it’s something that’s prettyamazing,” she was quoted as sayingby the ICC.

“The New Zealand game andthe semi-final, that's the most ner-vous and sick I've felt playingcricket. To get through that, com-ing in to the final, everyone was alittle on edge but it just happened.”

Such was the magnitude ofthe Melbourne final, Lanningstruggled to settle at all prior to thematch.

Never before has the women'sgame seen a crowd comparable tothe 86,174 that packed into theMCG on the International Women’sDay.

But the 27-year-old was calmwhen it mattered the most —largely thanks to her Australiateammates holding back their ownnerves on the big day.

“This day is incredible, wecouldn't have dreamed of this.When the organisers said theywanted to get that many people forthe Final, I must admit I was a bitsceptical.

“But you wanted to be thereand be involved. There was such abig build-up, all the outside pres-sure and expectation -- we wantedto come and win this tournamentbut it was something else.

“The way we were able to reactand deal with that was testament tothe group — this day is certainlythe best of my career so far.”

PTI n AHMEDABAD

Bruised and battered in New Zealand, India’s ODIsquad on Sunday got a major boost as a fit-again

Hardik Pandya returned for the three-match seriesagainst South Africa, having successfully recuperat-ed from a back surgery.

Along with Pandya, opener Shikhar Dhawan andseamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will also add depth tothe 15-member squad, selected under the chairman-ship of Sunil Joshi.

However, itcould be curtains forveteran KedarJadhav as ShubmanGill’s return in thewhite-ball fold is agood enough indic-tor.

Vi c e - c a p t a i nRohit Sharma is yetto fully recuperatefrom his calf muscleinjury and is expect-ed to return to actionduring the IndianPremier League laterthis month. Thus,Prithvi Shawretained his place inthe ODI squad,while Mayank Agarwal, after a dismal New Zealandtour, had to make way for Dhawan.

The Mumbai duo of Shardul Thakur and ShivamDube paid for their shoddy showing in New Zealandas Pandya and Bhuvneshwar rightfully got their placesback.

Bhuvneshwar, on the other hand, had a sportshernia surgery but has successfully completed hisrehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy.

But the biggest news was Hardik’s comeback,which, though, was on predictable lines.

Pandya’s performances at the DY Patil CorporateCup was not about the 150 odd he scored or the wick-ets he took but was about how fit he looked out therein the middle.

At the same time, the soon-to-be-35 Jadhav, whohas literally stopped bowling in ODIs and is also notdoing well batting at the No 6 slot, has been finallydropped from the side.

With the next 50-over World Cup in 2023 whenJadhav will be 38, it is highly unlikely that he willadd to his 73 ODIs.

Shardul, who did improve as a batsman, leakedruns during the T20s as well as ODIs. Bhuvneshwar’sexperience as a swing and seam bowler was sorelymissed in New Zealand conditions. WithMohammed Shami rested for this series,Bhuvneshwar’s presence will also be a bit of respitefor Jasprit Bumrah, who himself is going through arough patch.

ODI SQUADShikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C),

KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, RishabhPant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, BhuvneshwarKumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, NavdeepSaini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

PTI n RAJKOT

Saurashtra, led by the inspira-tional Jaydev Unadkat, will

back themselves to win an elu-sive Ranji Trophy title at homebut a buoyant Bengal will be nopushovers in what promises tobe an absorbing final beginninghere on Monday.

Both the teams are desper-ate to go all the way withSaurashtra reaching their fourthfinal in eight seasons whileBengal has not tasted success inthe premier domestic eventsince the 1989-90 triumph.

While Bengal bulldozedover the mighty Karnataka inthe semifinals, Saurashtra edgedout Gujarat in a see-saw contestat the SCA Stadium, which isalso the venue for the final.

There will also be starpower on display with Testregulars Cheteshwar Pujara andWriddhiman Saha joining theSaurashtra and Bengal squadsrespectively, having returnedfrom New Zealand.

In fact, Pujara was verymuch Saurasthra’s 12th manwith Unadkat being in constanttouch with his senior teammateduring the hard-fought semifi-nal. Now his physical presencein the all-important game willbe a big boost to the side.

Saurashtra would not haveended up on the right side of theresult against Gujarat if it was-n’t for Unadkat, who has had a

sensational run this season with65 wickets at an average of 12.17and is three shy of the all-timerecord of 68 scalps, set by Biharspinner Ashutosh Aman lastseason.

The left-arm pacer single-handedly led his team to victo-ry on day five earlier this weekwith a seven-wicket haul on aflat surface, including the scalpsof a set Parthiv Patel andChiragh Gandhi, who hadbrought Gujarat back in thegame from a hopeless 63 for fivewhile chasing 327.

Unadkat’s stellar perfor-mances over the course of theseason has put him back in

national reckoning but in hisown words, they would countfor little if the team doesn’t goall the way.

Not just with the ball, healso inspired with his captain-cy and one example of that waswhen he promoted number 11Chetan Sakariya, who shared acrucial 90-run stand with ArpitVasavada (139) after the hosts

collapsed to 15 for five.The skipper is leading from

the front but will expect morefrom his fellow pacers whohave not done much to writehome about this season.

Besides Pujara, the team’sleading run-getter SheldonJackson will be expected toshoulder the batting responsi-bilities.

Australia outclassIndia in T20 WorldCup final

PTI n MELBOURNE

Skipper HarmanpreetKaur on Sunday

backed beleaguered16-year-old ShafaliVerma after herdropped catch ofAlyssa Healy costIndia dear in theWomen’s T20 WorldCup f inal againstAustralia here on Sunday.

Shafali dropped Healyin the first over when theAustralian opener wason nine. Healy went onto smash a 39-ball 75and, along with BethMooney (78 not outoff 54), added 115runs for the open-ing wicket topower Australiato 184 for four.

“ S h e(Verma) is only16, she’s playingher first WorldCup. She didr e a l l y ,really welland per-f o r m e dfor us. Fora 16-year-old kid, it’s dif-ficult to keep

thinking positively and stay in thegame,” said Kaur.

“It’s a learning lesson for herbut it could happen to any-

one. We can’t blame herbecause there were oth-

ers also in her posi-tion.”

Left-arm spin-ner RajeshwariGayakwad alsowasted a caught

and bowledchance of Mooney

early in the Australianinnings, and Kaur rued the

two dropped catches.“We gave chances to bat-

ters in great form and it's dif-ficult for bowlers to comeback when that happens,” shesaid.

Kaur denied that her sidewere overwhelmed by the occa-sion as they were playing intheir maiden final in front of arecord 86174 spectators at theiconic MCG, the most in awomen's cricket match.

“We weren’t feeling underpressure but unfortunately wewere unable to create those

chances. It’s a lesson for all ofus, we have to be at 100 per

cent when we’re fieldingbecause that's the mostimportant part of cricket.”

Can't blame Shafali for defeat: Harman

MELBOURNE: Senior India player SmritiMandhana called for the team to be leftalone after its 85-run mauling byAustralia.

“This is a time to introspect. Failureteaches you a lot more than success. Theteam needs to be left alone and thinkof how we can be better in the next fewyears,” Mandhana said after the match.

Mandhana believed India are atransformed team in the shortest for-mat, and she attributed it to head coachWV Raman.

“T20 was never our best format,

one-day was definitely the preferred for-mat. Now we’re playing each formatequally well. That is one thing the coachhas helped us with and we’ve developedmassively,” she said.

“The youngsters coming in havetotally changed the set-up and the bestpart of the tournament was it was acomplete team performance. That’sone thing Raman has done — develop-ing us as a team not just one or two play-ers. Today, it didn't work out but we'vegrown as a team, not just as one or twoplayers.” PTI

Team needs to be left alone, time to introspect: Mandhana

Afghans take T20 series

Everyone was little on edge: Lanning Hardik, Bhuvireturn to face SA

AFP n GREATER NOIDA

Teenage spinner Mujeeb UrRahman took three wickets to

help Afghanistan beat Ireland by 21runs and claim an unassailable 2-0 series lead in the secondTwenty20 international in India onSunday.

Afghanistan won the toss andelected to bat, but started sluggish-ly before skipper Asghar Afghan's49 off 28 balls lifted the team to 184for 4 from 20 overs.

Mujeeb struck early in Ireland’sinnings to claim the wickets ofopeners Paul Stirling and KevinO'Brien, and finished with 3-38 toearn the man of the match.

Captain Andrew Balbirnie (46)and Harry Tector (37) mounted a

recovery but it was not enough,with Ireland finishing on 163-6.

“Happy to win the series. Wefocused on some strike rotationbefore going for quick runs,”Afghan told Cricinfo after thematch.

Ireland captain AndrewBalbirnie said his team needed tobuild on its strong starts.

“We started pretty well but youhave to be good for the whole 20overs... The series is now gone butit’s a big year and we need to focuson the third game,” Balbirnie added.

Afghanistan beat Ireland in thefirst match on Friday in a rain-affected fixture in India.

The two teams play the thirdand final game, also in northernIndia, on Tuesday.

Saurashtra poised for Ranji glory

PTI n RAJKOT

Wriddhiman Saha is con-fident that Bengal’s

unheralded bunch of bowlershave seen enough ofCheteshwar Pujara on televi-sion to plot his dismissalwhen they take on Saurashtrain the Ranji Trophy final.

This is the first time inhis 13-year-old first-classcareer that Saha will be play-ing a national final andAkash Deep, Mukesh Kumarand Ishan Porel will onlybenefit from his advice onhow dismiss Pujara on atrack wher he has playedsome of his marathoninnings.

“Whoever fights till theend will win. They (Bengal

teammates) all watch interna-tional matches. They knowhow to get Pujara out,” Sahawas reticent as usual bit sure-ly put across a point.

“Earlier, the past teamsreached the knock-outs onthe basis of performance of afew players. For example,Ashok Dinda used to take(bulk of) wickets withoutmuch support from the otherend, the team was stuck in away. Now everyone is con-tributing,” Saha said.

“The bowlers are alsocontributing with the bat.Match-wining performanceshave come in the battingdepartment. There is goodcamaraderie too whichhelps,” the veteran of 102first-class games said.

Our guys know how to getPujara out: Wriddhiman

“This tournament wasalways going to be

massive, we had ourups and downsthroughout and

everything was thrownat us. To be able to

come through and havethe complete

performance on thebiggest stage, it's

something that's prettyamazing”

Southern stars shine so bright

Bengal vs SaurashtraLive from 9:30am ISTSTAR SPORTS 2 NETWORK